Take God’s sovereignty and see how it allows Him to be patient. For example, He has thoughts and plans toward us for a hope and a future, for welfare and not calamity (Jeremiah 29:11). These are plans and thoughts for us that have and have not yet become reality in our lives. Until we are saved by faith in Jesus, our God’s singular desire is to see us saved. Once saved, God has a singular desire for us to be more and more like Jesus. And though He desires these things far more than we do, He is patient because He knows what is coming with His complete sureness.
Give thought to God’s sovereignty and you may see how it allows Him to do some amazing things completely outside the box of human expectations. I started writing about patience because He waits and He waits, sometimes for very long periods of time, watching us in our activities that are contrary to Him and that are of haters of God. But He waits none the less. As I write this I review my past and am amazed at His love shown by His patience for such a willful sinner.
I’m writing about Him being outside the box because I discovered something that is perplexing, wondrous, it defies time, love and patients as I knew it.
Taken by God’s love, I was saved in mid-1998 at 32 years old. Going back further to the 1980s I was engaged in a list of activities that I will not to list. Sex, drugs, rock and roll about cover it though. I also liked to write poetry and do other things that were pretty innocuous but were an outlet for my creative side. I wrote several poems with subjects ranging from being in love with a certain girl (or two) to painful teenage confusion concerning the reason I even existed – I’m sure we’ve all had a go at writing on those things. As I was rummaging through some of that I found a few poems that had me beside myself.
Give it at least 10 years that I wrote these before accepting Jesus, and having some time in church as a child and no time at all in my teens, wrote the following poem. I vaguely remember writing it, but had no intent to exalt Christ or God in any way, I had no clue about the implication of His “river” or “kingdom” or anything else – I remember just writing what I was thinking at the time. It is obvious that God had done something then and wanted to show me something 30 years later too – that He always cared, always had a plan, and He even had me asking for Jesus (last line) before I knew what I needed! My goal is not to show off my high school level writing, but to show off my God.
Heaven
Take me to those gentle rivers that flow as your love does.
Give me what I deserve be it love or hate or deserts desolate.
Take my soul and pass me through your kingdom of life.
Give my soul a new way so that I can wade in your river.
His Patients is beyond us. Live a life of peace and power in the assurance of His faithfulness!