Saturday, February 19, 2011

Stubbornness and patience with a purpose.


In my life I have been stubborn and to some extent I still am; now this may not always seem to be a admirable trait, but I must say that during the last several years, stubbornness and patience have been a blessing to me.

In our lives we will face much adversity; we will endure hardship and we will endure pain, both physical and mental. I for one am not any happier about this than you would be, but sometimes I feel it is neccesary, at least it has been in my hard case. Do we expect happiness, of course we do, we even get upset if it doesn't come to us on a regular basis. We need not lower our expectations of receiving joy, we need only to wait patiently for it and we must pray in a sincere and stubborn manner till we possess it.

But what if it seems to never come, that happiness, shall we take matters into our own hands and try to force a positive outcome. Try looking to the book of Genesis, chapter 16, verses 1-5. Now Sarai(Sarah), grew very impatient with the LORD and desired a child so badly she took matters into her own hand, she did not rely on Providence and for this she suffered mental anguish from Hagar's taunting.

Let us look at another example of stubbornness; in the book of Daniel, chapter 1, verse 8 and again in chapter 3, verses 16-18 and finally chapter 6, verse 10. We see a continuing pattern of defiance in Daniel's behavior. Now look at this scripture passage; in the book of Matthew chapter 9, verses 1-8.

There are reasons for being stubborn and I have learned the best reason to be is when it involves our faith, but I must say we need to be equally patient, as this is the better of the two traits, as I stated in the previous posts, we will serve our Lord better through tolerance and compassion, but I never said "We should renounce our own faith in the process".

His only commandment was; "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Book of John, chapter 13, verses 34-35. So I also say "yes, we should love one another, not only those who return our love, but those who are stubborn and even rude towards us. We remain steadfast in our faith, but we also remain patient and live in compassion towards each other. Have a blessed day ☺

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