“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”– Heb. 12:1
George Matheson, one of my favorite writers, was no stranger to suffering. Although blind and rejected by his fiancee who said, “I do not want to be the wife of a blind man” he continue to serve the Lord. Here is one of his quotes that has been a great blessing to me: “We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet there is a patience that I believe to be harder—the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: it is the power to work under stress; to have a great weight at your heart and still run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily tasks. It is a Christlike thing! The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in the sickbed but in the street.
Is it not human nature that if something takes us a long time to complete, we are inclined to become impatient. Or if a journey is long, we are generally inclined to grow weary and loiter by the way. But if the road is long and dusty, we are to be patient. If the trial is severe, we are to be patient, and not allow our souls to be agitated. Sometimes the blessing we expect may be delayed, but we are to be patient in waiting for it. Sometimes our persecutions may be fierce indeed, but we are to be patient whilst we endure them. This grace is like the rivet that binds all the machinery together.”
As we journey down the rough road of life, let us never forget this – “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” ( Heb. 10:36).
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346
