The objects in this mirror are closer than they appear emblazoned on side mirrors of vehicles as an instruction to the drivers made a definite impression on my mind while I was thinking on the topic in my column for this edition, Your Breakthrough is Closer than Ever; pointing at the virtue of patience in all our pursuits in life.
Patience is one virtue that most of us even as believers find difficult to imbibe. I, as a person have lost many opportunities and halted my progress both in life and ministry to unbridled impatience. Till now, I still battle impatience in my life often sparked by my choleric nature, unlike the sanguine who have the liver for patience.
The nature of our individual temperament is irrelevant and inexcusable in our everyday walk with the Lord as believers. Once we have confessed Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour as born again Christians our old nature must give way for our new nature in Christ. Jesus. The Bible says, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: behold old things are passed away; behold all things are become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Unfortunately, impatience is one old and deadly nature that does not die easily in our lives, even after we have given our lives to Christ until we are completely broken. As impatience is a terrible waster of opportunities and destinies, patience is a strong conveyer of durable blessings and riches to those who can exercise it.
God by patience created the entire world in seven days when, as the Almighty God He could simply have ordered all creatures into existence by fiat in just a day. If God was never in a hurry to create to the whole universe in a day, it is then proper for us mere mortals to also exercise patience, however tasking, in all our aspirations.
The Bible gives the accounts of the people who by patience inherited the promises. Hebrews 6:12-15 points out that through faith, patience and endurance they inherited the promises. Patience is a major characteristic of a truly broken. Without patience, it is impossible to work with God. Hannah waited patiently from a child from the Lord for a whole year after her silent prayer in Shiloh for the child.
Let us learn patience from our academic experiences in the University, polytechnic or college for some years of rigorous studies before we graduated. Some people even had extra years. Similarly, life is a course of study that demands from us patience to pass and obtain the certificate (promise). Never mind the lesekese or now-now gospel of some preachers that have turned God to magician. God works by process and precepts. Isaiah 28:10 “For precepts must be upon precepts; line upon line; here a little and there a little.” The verse 13 of this scripture mentioned brokenness as key to the virtue of patience.
Habakkuk 2:3 also enjoins us to wait until our desires manifest at the appointed time, or in the dispensation of the fullness of time according to Ephesians 1:10. So, it is all about waiting patiently for our desires which are closer than ever to manifest
Each new day reduces the number of your days of waiting for your desire to break brought. The fact that you live to see a new day is enough to thank the Lord Almighty that the day of your breakthrough has drawn closer by a day. Ask the people with genuine testimonies of their breakthrough, you will be amazed at the years they waited upon the Lord until they greatly broke through.
I am never impressed about people that claim that they made it fast in life or in ministry because most of them do not have convincing stories. Rev. Tony Akinyemi was asked by someone how his church The Shepherd’s Flock, “made” it in less than seven years that the church was founded. He simply replied the fellow: “What you are seeing today is a result of thirty years of my been in the ministry.”Can you beat that! It is not a lesekese testimony! Beloved, keep on waiting patiently. Your breakthrough is closer than ever each day in Jesus name. Shalom. 08180301631.
