Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
There are some of God’s promises however, that when acted on do not manifest immediately. These are the promises that require not only faith but also patience in order for us to be able to see the manifestation of those promises. Normally these promises involve the influencing of the wills of other individuals before the promise can be manifested. An example of this type of promise would be God supplying our financial need according to the promise recorded in the above quoted passage of scripture. When a believer acts on this particular promise, then in order for God our Father to be able to make this promise manifest in our lives He has to influence the wills of other individuals to make that finance available to us, and that takes time. When you read the context of this passage you will see that when Paul taught the church at Philippi about this particular promise, he had himself been standing in faith for God to supply his needs. And so in response to Paul’s faith God had moved upon that church to take up an offering and send it through to him. All of this took time however, and during that time Paul exercised patience along with his faith in waiting for God’s promise to be manifested.
Luke 8:15 “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
Another example of God’s promises that requires patience to be exercised along with our faith, is His promise to transform our lives into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord referred to it as producing the fruit of the kingdom with patience. Farmers understand the concept of patience, for none of them plant a crop and expect that crop to be ready for harvesting the following day. A wheat farmer for example, will sow a crop of wheat and fully expect to harvest that wheat in four months’ time because experience has taught him that it takes roughly four months for a crop of wheat to mature. And so while his crop of wheat is growing he will continue to water and nurture that seed. The point is that he knows that there is a time delay from the time he plants until the time he reaps. So it is with the kingdom of God. And so we see that there is a growth process, and if believers will patiently put into practice that which God teaches them through His word, then they can fully expect to ultimately see His word produce the fruit of the kingdom in their lives.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments