Continue in Patience
My perfectionism provokes me to impatience. I can see that I’m improving and getting better each day, but it isn’t happening fast enough for me. My natural tendency is to want perfection quickly—overnight.
When I’m in my perfectionism I want God to walk through the door and instantaneously make me complete. I want him to wipe away all my imperfections in one fell swoop.
But God’s nature is line upon line. And I have to accept that. When He perfects, it happens incrementally, here a little and there a little. If He were to walk through the door, I wouldn’t be living by faith anymore. So many answers would suddenly come into view. Should I falter from that point, I’d be held accountable.
So it’s because of His love that He perfects us bit by bit. What infants we truly are. And He loves us enough to respect our agency.
The Apostle Paul was given a “thorn in the flesh,” lest he should be “exalted above measure” (1 Cor. 12:7). This weakness, whatever it was, kept him human and was not removed. It required Paul to learn patience and to continue growing gradually, even though he had been visited by the Lord.
If I look up Patience in the Guide to the Scriptures, it says, “See also Endure; Meek, Meekness.” So I can work on enduring to the end and meekness. These two will help me see the thorns of life as essential to my learning.
Two passages I really like refer to patience in the light of perfection:
To be continued . . . with Part 41
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