Title
The Blessings of Patience
Scripture
I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
(Genesis 31:41)
Devotional
The apostle James says, “You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord---that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”(1) Jacob likewise demonstrated patience with regard to his dealings with Laban for his daughter Rachel. In like manner, as God was to Job, He was compassionate and merciful toward Jacob. Those twenty years gave him eleven sons, a beautiful daughter and great wealth. And God will be compassionate and merciful to you and me when we endure with the same patience. The apostle John tells us in the book of Revelation what that patience looks like: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”(2) I am not by nature a patient man, nevertheless, by the grace of God, I can choose to be and so can you. The greatest mistakes I have made in life are the decisions made impatiently; the greatest blessings have come with patience.
(1) James 5:11, (2) Revelation 14:12