Friday 31 July 2015

154 - Moments that teach us patience

‘…Be patient in tribulation’ (Romans 12:12)

My family and I have just come back from a holiday in Germany and Holland, and we believe God was trying to teach us a particular lesson
.
A lesson about patience.

First, our ferry was delayed and we left five hours later than we expected. One of my sisters was convinced we’d die in the carpark at the docks and never be found again. (It was a long wait).

Then, when we visited Amsterdam, torrential rain and winds stopped the trains. We waited nearly two hours at the station, cold and wet.
Seems like God was trying to say something.

If you’re not convinced…on Sunday, we visited a German church (they had a translator) and we heard a sermon on…you guessed it, patience!

In moments like that, it could be easy to complain. It could be easy to moan to each other about how terrible the weather is, how useless public transport is…etc.

But when you pray to God for patience, when you lift your eyes from your surroundings and up to Him…then you are reminded of your reasons to stay content.
Take our situations. We were together. We were safe. We weren’t ill. We still got to go on holiday, still got to visit some of Amsterdam.
Amazingly, God sent some us some English-speaking tourists, who just happened to know where we were trying to get to and told us how to get back to our house. 

And who knows? Perhaps a dangerous accident would have happened if we’d left earlier. We don’t know. But God does.

The knowledge that He is sovereign and in control of everything gives us comfort that the world is a chaotic place of chance. It’s all running under His plans.


And this knowledge gives us reason to be thankful for moments God uses to makes us patient. 

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