Balance. Purpose. Enlightenment.
Patience – the Power to Wait
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire. James 1:4
An advanced truth student said the more he learned, the easier the basic facts seem and the simpler the virtues needed for advancement. He suggested patience be fully investigated — its far-reaching implications thoughtfully considered, and for everyone who truly aspires to advancement along the Path to try sincerely to cultivate it.
One of the greatest obstacles to success in any area is lack of patience. Americans are characteristically impatient. “Right now” seems our main desire, while quality, beauty, harmony and thoroughness come after speed. Look at the faces of those who pass you on any busy street, and you will see the indelible stamp of this false doctrine. Strained, unhappy, anxious, worried faces rush past in their mad dash from here to there. Why? What do we gain by it? No wonder some are so unhappy! And all because of a lack of patience, the greatest healer of all.
Too many people consider patience the same as passiveness, but they are very different. Patience is the power to wait calmly; passiveness is not acting, but being acted on. Think about these two definitions. Passiveness is truly negative— the “do nothing” approach which is the degeneration of patience.
Patience is an outgrowth of mind and soul. It is the power to wait calmly.
Endurance is patience plus physical and mental stamina.
Fortitude combines high courage with the habit and power of endurance.
Forbearance is refraining from an action that seems justified. It does not try to repay insult or injury, not from apathy, unawareness or passiveness, but by choice and the exercise of will. It is tolerance carried to the nth degree.
Patience and forbearance go hand in hand. They are the sine qua non of human understanding and kindliness.
When all else has failed, try patience. It will save you many heartaches. It will solve an unbelievable number of your hardest problems, and most of the time, is actually the shortest path to success. It will bring into your environment a peace that can be experienced in no other way.
The next time you have a tedious job, feel that some problem is beyond your comprehension, or somebody doesn’t jump as fast as you think he should, try patience. The heat of the day will seem less unbearable, the trials and troubles that, like mosquitoes, seem to be driving you frantic, will disappear as when a cooling breeze springs up. Not only will patience restore God to His Heaven, but it will bring peace, contentment and happiness into your environment.
Who does not love the patient, kindly, tolerant person who is always forbearing, understanding and just? Who welcomes us with a heartwarming smile, and who patiently and with fortitude listens to our troubles while withholding any hint of his own? – Robert D. Stelle
Copyright © 2016 Lemurian Fellowship
5 thoughts on “Patience – the Power to Wait”
Comments are closed.
That’s what all of us are doing here, and we welcome people who are ready to make important changes.
On how many occasions impatience in working with an uncomfortable situation had not turned out well, I can’t count. Over time, and lots of experience, letting some time pass and allowing the virtue patience to do its work, I learned the value of letting a situation go until emotions calmed down. Sometimes a situation worked out itself without the impatience that would have gummed up a perfectly fine solution.
Patience is linked to faith that all is working out as it should, while impatience often releases imaginary negative thoughts that only close the door to help that may come.
I think if you turn over the coin of Patience, you will find Confidence on the other side. Being confident of the future, confident of the inevitable Kingdom of God, lets us concentrate patiently on the present, knowing the future will unfold with all the blessings we could hope for.
Thinking of patience as the greatest healer of all is so helpful when there seem to be so many things to fix all at once. Patience is strength and it seems like another way of being in the moment – not the past, rushing to the future. Just being here now with quiet strength.