The Case for Patience

A quirk of conversation I often encounter in Christian circles is the phrase, "don't pray for patience."

One person will be saying that he needs more patience in his life, and someone else will say, "Well, you know what happens when you pray for patience." Then everyone else will chuckle and nod knowingly, as though sharing an inside joke. "Never pray for patience," someone will say.

The idea behind these comments is that when one prays for patience, God will send him many trials and hard times in order to stretch and grow that person's patience. While I realize that oftentimes these comments are made in jest, there is still an underlying idea that God is contractually bound to send tribulations to His children who dare pray for patience.

I think this view of God is incorrect and harmful for two reasons. First, God is not bound by some cosmic law to rain down hardship on those who ask Him for patience. Second, even if He were, we as Christians are supposed to rejoice in tribulation, not run from it.

The book of James tells us that the testing of our faith through trials produces patience. So yes, of course God will sometimes cause His followers to fall into hard times in order to bring about greater patience in their lives. 

But major trials are not God's only means of building up our patience! He can use good times and blessings to remind us to be patient in the bad times. He can use a good sermon, a faithful friend, minor everyday annoyances, or even give us patience directly through His Spirit inside us. He can give us patience however He wants: He's God! 

One must have a very limiting view of God's power to think that He has only one way of accomplishing His goals for our lives. 

Why is it just patience we do this with, anyway? Why don't we say, "Oh, don't pray for self-control, you're sure to be tempted." That logic works just as well. "Don't pray for greater love, God is sure to send an unlovable person into you life." What if we had this view about every prayer request? Our entire prayer life would be destroyed! And of course, no Christian would ever want that. So why do we do it with patience?

Even if God could only give us patience through trials, what makes us think that we could avoid those trials by not asking? Does God only dole out hardship when His followers ask for it? I don't think so. Just ask Israel. Never praying for patience is not some cosmic loophole that handcuffs God, people. He's not up there in heaven with a lightning bolt in his hand, saying, "Oh if only Caleb would ask for patience, then I could smite him." 

Again, thinking that in any way we can avoid trials by refraining from asking for patience shows a very limited opinion of God's power.

Lastly, even if every prayer for patience equaled an automatic tribulation, we should keep asking anyway! James 1: 2-3 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."

We should be rejoicing when God sends us hardship! Like Paul and Silas, we should be singing God's praises while sitting in prison! If we could guarantee hard times by asking for patience, a Biblical perspective would still encourage us to keep firing up those prayers. Trying to avoid tribulations through a lack of prayer shows a faulty and unbiblical attitude.

I hope these jumbled thoughts make sense. I, for one, will continue praying for patience just like every other virtue.

Adapting to Seemingly Negative Change

Daniel 1:17- "God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom..."

In context, what literature and wisdom was that? Pagan, Babylonian literature and wisdom! God allowed Daniel to go through a much less-than-ideal education system for His glory.

Daniel and his three friends went through a lifetime of massive changes in their first few years in captivity. Daniel chapter 1 shows us at least 7 of those changes. But Daniel and friends only stood up to one of those changes, and simply accepted and adapted to the rest. In fact, the entire book of Daniel only records three times that they ever rejected negative change.

Daniel didn't complain and protest the majority of the changes the Babylonians forced on his life. He only stood his ground when they asked him to do something directly against God's word.

And guess what? God blessed Daniel and his friends immensely for how they adapted to the changes in their life! God used the Babylonian captivity and all the paganism that they were forced to learn to bring about His work in the lives of those four boys. Daniel was only able to faithfully serve God as the king's trusted adviser for so many years because he didn't rage against all the seemingly negative change that was thrust upon his life in captivity.

Just because there is change occurring that we don't like, whether in our personal lives, with our friends, or in our nation, we don't always have to reject that change. Consternation, boycotts, and angry Facebook complaints about our government aren't always the answer.

Down here in the South, as soon as we see something we don't like, we want to secede from it. But God through Daniel is saying that sometimes we can't and we shouldn't. Unless we are specifically asked to do something that contradicts God's commands, maybe we should just accept the changes and learn to adapt to them as they come.

As usual, these ideas are not straight from my brain. Or at least the concepts behind them aren't. These are simply my thoughts on a sermon by Phil Carpenter at Lake Charles Bible Church. This blog is not for me to preach new revelation, because that is far beyond me. It is simply an avenue for me to get out my thoughts on a certain teaching. So I hope at least one person enjoys this post, and if not, I sure did.