Patience and Grace

Maybe it’s just because I am a woman that I feel this way, but sometimes I feel like I need someone to be patient and gracious with me. Perhaps it is my own sinful selfishness, but whereas sometimes I am understanding when others treat me impatiently or without common courtesy' other times I just feel like I am in need of some patience. I don’t mean that I feel like I need to be patient with them, rather I feel an emotional need for someone to show me patience, kindness, love, etc. Sort of like a moment when you are tired and at your wit’s end, and someone snaps at you… You think to yourself, “I don’t need this. I needed a kind word, a hug or a good back rub or some such comforting thing, but this was not what I needed.”

Here’s the BIG HUGE REVELATION that came to me: Jesus has patience for me. Jesus has grace in abundance for me. He is overflowing with love for me and comfort as well. That person who is “not meeting my needs” was never really meant to. Only in Jesus are my needs met. He made me a creature with needs so that He will glorify the Father by meeting those needs and as I delight in Him His beauty and wonderfulness will show to everyone around me. So when I am feeling “needy” it is an opportunity to seek Jesus. Jesus is patient, gracious, kind, merciful and He loves me even in my sin and deficiencies. When someone else is impatient and discourteous; even cruel, I can and should go to Jesus in prayer, and through reading the bible and thinking on Him. He will give me what I need to go back and show love, mercy, humility and grace to those difficult people, because I have found a fountain flowing from Him that rejuvenates my soul and meets all my needs, if I will but drink of its waters.

Psalm 81: 10 “I , the Lord, am your God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.”

Psalm 81:16 “But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”