Patient for Promise.

I'm a words person. I read a lot, I write a lot and I definitely talk a lot. My room, my classroom, my computer, my dashboard, anywhere I spend time is plastered with words that are encouragement to my heart. Because life is hard and encouraging words are good for the soul. I was reading recently and came across a quote that I really haven't been able to get out of my head or my heart...

"When you are willing to settle for immediate fulfillment instead of being patient for promise, you start complaining instead of encouraging."

It stuck. So I wrote it down and put it on my computer at school so that every time I saw it, it was a reminder to be patient, but not only patient...patient for promise.

Recently, patient has not been a word that could describe me. Not that it ever really is, but definitely not lately. I have had such a hard time with the first part of that quote, patient for promise. Because I really think I forgot what I was being called to be patient for... promise, His promise, which HE promises is more than I could ever imagine. I got so caught up in the fact that right now isn't an easy season of life for me, and that life is hard, and things weren't going how I wanted them to go. I wanted all of that fixed right now, immediately. I found myself complaining, and in no way being thankful or anywhere close to encouraging. My desire for immediate fulfillment had grown larger than my desire for what the Lord has planned for my life.

There is purpose in the Lord having us be patient. The Lord isn't holding out on you. He wants to bless you immeasurably and He does want to give you the desires of your heart- He promises that. And looking back even over the past week, the Lord has shown me that He knows the desires of my heart better than I do. For that, I am so thankful. That He would move, give, and take away based on Him wanting the absolute best for His daughter and refusing to let me settle for something less than His best for me.

The purpose of being patient for promise is faith, faith that the Lord is in control regardless of any feeling that I may have. The Lord is a promise maker and a promise keeper and for that I am so thankful. And it is also because of that I can truly believe that the best is yet to come. 

Other words that have encouraged me greatly are these...

"Because He loves you, God will not bless you so richly that you do not have to trust Him. He blesses you seasonally, proportionately, and incremently because He wants to bestow you with both the gift itself and the gift of faith, and never the former without the latter."

Promise maker, promise keeper, in control and working for His glory and my good. For all those reasons and more, I can trust Him and be patient for His promise that will be greater than I could ever hope or imagine.