THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

There will be no more posts added to this blog site.

Practical Bible Teaching has moved.

Archived items up to 2/29/2012 will remain on this site, so you can go back through any of the different series we have done.

All future posts can now be found at:

PRACTICAL BIBLE TEACHING–BLOG

I appreciate your support to this point, and hope that you will continue to follow these teachings at their new home.

Have a godly day.

Dale

 

PATIENCE–How to Get It

“God, I need patience, and I need it now!”

Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. Then discovered that’s not how it works at all.

Most Christians subscribe to the somewhat facetious statement, “Don’t pray for patience.”

That statement is telling in that it shows how we think about God and His dealings in our life. It also shows why we are so slow to adapt to His ways.

God is not some cosmic genie just waiting around to fulfill our next self-centered request. We tend to think that if we pray for patience, then we will somehow see patience show up in our lives. And when it doesn’t, we develop the extremely faulty (and lop-sided) theology that “God sometimes says, No.”

The truth of the matter is that God said, Yes to your request for patience.

He gave you a parking lot on the freeway on the one day you were late for work.

He gave you a crowded store with only three bumbling cashiers open for service.

He gave you a flat tire in the pouring rain.

He gave you your little precious smearing “chocolate pudding” all over the bathroom.

He gave you your bank deposit disappearing into the ether.

And the list goes on and on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

Patience is a part of character. Impatience is also a part of character–or shows a lack of character. Aspects of what we call “character” are developed over time, not instantaneously manifested.

Gold in its raw form is hardly recognizable. It must be heated and hammered and separated from all that which is not gold in order for its true beauty to shine forth.

Likewise, patience is not demonstrated when all is going smoothly in your life. True patience is the quality needed in each of the scenarios listed above. Those situations are specifically designed for you to learn how to develop patience.

Pick any one of those listed, or recall your own situation from the recent past, and see how patience could have served you.

Better yet, look at how impatience serves you. Does getting upset and yelling solve the situation? Does that behavior make you happy, make you feel good? Does drumming your fingers on the counter help or hinder the cashier? Does yelling at the bank clerk find your money any faster? Does inching up on the driver in front of you make the light change any quicker? Wouldn’t exercising patience help everyone involved breathe a little easier?

Patience is not merely waiting for something. It is waiting without anxiety, without nervousness.

Patience, then, calls for that character quality we looked at earlier–self-control.

Exercising patience can bring peace to a stressful situation. Exercising patience will take the edge off people’s attitudes. When you can show patience in a situation, you help calm the nerves of those around you. When you help calm the nerves of those around you, they can get their job done better. When they can get their job done better, things will go more smoothly. When things begin to go more smoothly, you no longer need to be patient. When you no longer need to exercise patience, you will be happier.

And, after all…isn’t that really why you are drumming your fingers? You just want to be happy, don’t you?

A spiritual person realizes that everything in this life is only temporary and will soon pass. Therefore, a spiritual person has patience.

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Simple Spirituality and NASCAR Racing

The more I dig into this concept of the spiritual person, the more I realize how uncomplicated it really is.

Because of my religious upbringing, and my dedication to church work, I have kept spirituality within a religious context.

One of the favorite thoughts of the past 10 years has been the contrast of spirituality with religiosity. People say things like, “What is the difference between being religious and being spiritual?” Or, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” There has been a strong move to separate the two in our thinking and practice. This is good.

Can religion be separated from spirituality?

The answer should be an obvious, “Yes,” since we all know many religious people who haven’t an ounce of spirituality in their life.

However, the flip side is much more open to debate, because it is harder to define–”Does spirituality hinge on religion? Must one be religious in order to be spiritual?” A definition of terms is required for a meaningful discussion of these questions.

“Spiritual” is the term I am seeking to define with this series of articles. For the moment, I will leave it as “a person who manifests the positive qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (We have not yet determined if ALL of these must be present in order to be considered spiritual.)

“Religion,” however, is a bit more difficult to limit, because we use the word and its cognates in a broad range of concepts. For instance, “He is religious with his workouts at the gym.” “She is religious with her diet.” “NASCAR racing is his religion.”

The underlying/overriding idea is that of ‘regularity’ or ‘discipline.’ Due to the original meaning of the word “religion,” we can also see the idea of ‘worship’ in these various uses.

Therefore, I return to, “Must one be religious in order to be spiritual?”

If spirituality is defined as and by the characteristics listed, and religious is defined by regularity and discipline, then the answer should also be an obvious “Yes.”

Why?

Look at the list of positive qualities and point out which one comes naturally to a human. Not one. Each one of those are qualities that must be cultivated, developed over time–ie, disciplined.

Therefore, if one is to become a spiritual person, one must possess the discipline of practice in order to develop each particular quality. It is the “discipline of practice” that makes one ‘religious.’ However, it is the realm of that which we practice that makes all the difference. This is what sets most of the Judeo-Christian people apart from most other religious practitioners.

For most Christians, their practice consists of going to church, Bible study, prayer, and fellowship–commonly referred to as religious activities. For many other religions outside the three Judeo-Christian ones, their practice is focused on developing the qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, etc.

This ought not to be. It should be the same for all who are seeking spirituality or godliness.

 

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