The Waiting Room

                       There are many seasons in life, but the hardest season is waiting. Whether you just graduated high school or college or you were laid off from work; not knowing what you are going to do next is scary and frustrating.
                       As a Christian it is almost inevitable that there will come a time in your life where you will have to wait on God in an area in your life. In these trying times, how should we as Christians handle ourselves? What should we do? How should we feel?
                        James 1:2-3 tells us "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." "Various trials" can mean that you don't know where your next pay check is coming from, or the engine to your family's car just gave out, or you simply just don't know where you are going in life. James doesn't tell us to have a pity party when trials befall us, instead he tells us to rejoice! He says we should rejoice because these trials are testing our faith and producing patience.
                        Why is it so important to produce patience? Well firstly pateince is one of the fruits of the Spirit. "But the fruit of ths Spirit is love, joy, peace, Patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22.  And in Matthew 7:16 Jesus says "You will know them by their fruits.." The world knows us by our fruits or our lack there of; and patience is the key to the fruits. Once you've mastered patience you'll begin to see the other fruits develop in you.
                           Once you've gained patience, you'll notice that you have more love. It says in 1 Corinithians 13:4 "Love is patient; love is kind; love does not envy." (Verses 5-8 continue to say other things about love if you'd like to read them all :)) Love is patient; so you see you cannot walk in love without having patience.
                              Once you have mastered patience you'll notice that you have more joy and peace. When you are patient and waiting on the Lord you will have joy and peace because you will know that the pressure is not on you, instead everything is in God's hands!
                             Once you have patience you will begin to have kindness and goodness. When you are truly patient in the Lord you will be able to have kindness and goodness to others, no matter how dire your circumstances are because you will have peace in your heart knowing God has everything under control.
                              Patience also leads to faith and gentleness. Faith is "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1. With patience we gain faith in the Lord, so although we cannot see an answer we know that God has a way already mapped out for us. Having a faith like this we will be able to be gentle not harsh or short with others.
                              And that is the perfect segue to our last fruit: self-control. When you have patience, you can better control your emotions and actions, so you are better equipped to handle those annoying people or tense situations.
                               All of the fruits of the Spirit really depend and piggy-back off of one another, and patience is in the middle of them all. Thats why James says count it al joy when we experience trials because these tests will produce patience in us.
                               So the next time you find yourself in the waiting room, praise God because now you can grow patience and all the other fruits of the Spirit in you!
                                                                   -Alexandra