365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 348: Giver of Patience

Giver of Patience

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." (Colossians 3:12 NIV)

Did I lose you on this one, my friends? I probably would have lost me, because on a patience scale of 1 (not patient at all) to 10 (very patient), I am approximately a minus 100.

As God's beloved, we're supposed to be "clothed" in His patience. We're supposed to put it on. We're supposed to wear it.

But patience is not the comfy sweatshirt of my spiritual wardrobe. I usually have to struggle into it. It almost always feels a little tight. 

I think part of the reason is that I equate patience with passivity. But God's patience is much more about power that's restrained in the interest of mercy. Godly patience isn't about being on hold nearly so much as it is about holding back and holding on for a greater gain. This is patience with purpose.

The purpose of God's patience is repentance: "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4).

The purpose of God's patience is redemption: "Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him" (2 Peter 3:15).

The purpose of God's patience is restoration: "What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? As he says in Hosea: 'I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,' and, 'In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God' ' " (Romans (9:22,25-27).

The purpose of God's patience is relationship: "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2).

In repentance, there is a turning away from sin. In redemption, there is a freeing of what sin has held captive. In restoration, there is a rebuilding of what sin has torn down. In relationship, there is a bridging of the gap sin created.

This is not passivity. This is passion.

May God help us put it on and wear it well.

365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 347: Giver of Daily Bread

Giver of Daily Bread

"Give us today our daily bread." (Matthew 6:11 NIV)

When Jesus, the Bread of Life, taught the disciples to pray, "Give us today our daily bread," He was building on precedent. 

The manna God rained down on His people en route to the Promised Land was nothing if not daily, and it was surely given by God.

The manna was "given": it literally fell from God's storehouse by His hand. It wasn't something the people could make for themselves. They could collect it, but they couldn't create it.

The manna was "daily": God promised to supply it for each new day and asked His kids to trust Him for that provision by only gathering as much as they needed for that day...not to try to store it up. (And knowing they'd try anyway, God built in a VERY short shelf life on His daily bread.)

The manna was "bread": here we are not so much talking about the actual composition of the manna—a white substance that resembled coriander seed—as we are about its nourishing, sustaining, supplying powers. It fed. It strengthened. It energized. 

My problem (well, as it relates to daily bread as given by God, anyway) is that, in my natural self, my prayer goes something like this: "Oh, God, enable me to make sustenance for myself so that I can control it and don't have to rely on you. Help me to store up months' and years' worth so that I don't have to trust you day by day. And instead of bread, I'd really prefer something more like cake...something sweet and appealing."

But of course this is not how God works. All the lessons taught by God's provision of manna in the wilderness—lessons later reinforced by Jesus' model prayer—inform a different kind of request.

Oh, God...

"Give me" (for I cannot supply it for myself...it is only from Your hand)... 

"This day" (today, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but the day I'm living right now, which is itself a gift from Your hand)...

"My daily" (I trust You to know and supply the amount I need for this 24 hours)...

"Bread" (lasting nourishment for mind, body, and soul that will strengthen me for service to you and to my family and community).

Amen.

365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 346: Giver of What We Need

Giver of What We Need

"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Matthew 6:7,8 NIV)

"And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19 NIV)

My family needed something the other day. We didn't actually know what we needed, and, in fact, we didn't even know that we needed it.

But God knew both what and that.

The longer we walk with God, the more we build up a memory bank of times God met needs we didn't even know we had. There is a special kind of power to this provision. Certainly, we are thankful when we know we have a need and we ask God to meet it and He does. But when we come to a place where we realize our need and, at the very same moment, realize God has already met it...this is a profoundly faith-building place to be. These moments become deposits in our trust accounts, to be drawn on in the future. They become ammunition for the thankfulness that fires up the shoes of peace in our spiritual armor.

Gratitude to God is always based on what He has already done. We may say, "Thank you in advance," to show our genuine belief in God's future faithfulness, but even that is based on His past provision. And few things cure a thankfulness deficiency—when we're suffering from that recurring condition—more quickly than to look back on previous chapters in our story with God and reread accounts of the times He's met our needs before we were even aware we had them.

I only have to look a few days in the past to see the need my family had that we weren't even aware of until we were seeing God's meeting of it. Maybe you're remembering something similar: "I didn't even know I needed _____________, but God provided it."

To recount what God has done is to rehearse His goodness. To rehearse His goodness is to refresh our thankfulness. And to refresh our thankfulness is to renew our faithfulness that the next time we get to a place where we recognize a need, we will hear God's voice telling us, "I knew that you'd need this. I knew what you'd need. Here...I've got it waiting for you."