Patience and Peace

       Some say 'Don't pray for patience, because God will give you more opportunities to practice and display it'.  While I can understand that kind of logic, I still believe in praying for continuous help with my own forbearance.  On a greater scale, I believe in praying for peace through my struggles with patience.  The opposite of peace is war.  I think we can create a war within our minds as we deal with our impatience in all things.  We tend to get anxious, short-tempered, frustrated, doubtful, and generally unhappy in our impatient circumstance.  In these moments, it's best to pause and talk with God.  He can best calm our thoughts, emotions and fears.
       "When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy."  Psalm 94:18-19
        "Trust Me in the midst of a messy day. Your inner calm--your Peace in My Presence--need not be shaken by what is going on around you. Though you live in this temporal world, your innermost being is rooted and grounded in eternity. When you start to feel stressed, detach yourself from the disturbances around you. Instead of desperately striving to maintain order and control in your little world, relax and remember that circumstances cannot touch My Peace." [Jesus Calling]
        John 16:32-33  "A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
        In Colossians 1:9-14, Paul and Timothy recognized the importance of patience and encouraging endurance through it.  "We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."  I need to pray that for myself and others.  Satan tries to derail us from our purposes in life by turning our focus off the eternal and onto the temporary fluff.  When you feel yourself getting impatient and short-sighted, ask God for the strength to endure. 
        Our patience extends into our trials of suffering.   Often we get overwhelmed by what we are going through, but we must be patient and persevere.  James 5:7-8  "Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waitingfor the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near."  God is in control and hears our cries, therefore be patient for his answers and comfort.  
        "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."  John 14:27  Peace is given to us through the Holy Spirit.  Guidance through our troubled times is a comfort like no other on Earth.  Proverbs 19:11  "A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense."  May we all remember God's patience with each of us and let us pass on the same grace and mercy with ourselves and others.