July 13, 2013 … Praying for Patience – Fix Me, Jesus!

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 194

Passage of the Day #1: Proverbs 19: 11, 14: 29, 16: 32 [Patience is one of God’s fruit.] [NLT] …
… 19:11 People with good sense restrain their anger; they earn esteem by overlooking wrongs. 
… 14: 29 Those who control their anger have great understanding; those with a hasty temper will make mistakes. 
… 16: 32 It is better to be patient than powerful; it is better to have self-control than to conquer a city.
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  Contextual Study involving today’s passage found in Galatians, Chapter 5 … Go to this link … 
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 Reference Passage of the Day #1: Galatians 5: 22-23 [How ripe is the fruit of patience in our lives?] …
22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.

Reference Passage of the Day #2: Philippians 1: 6 [Jesus is working in all Christians to make us more like Him … to fix us!] …
6 And I am sure that God, Who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.

Devotional Song: Go to this link   … Today, please take the time to hear Queen Latifah singing, “Fix me, Jesus” from the Movie, Joyful Noise which has been a prayer of mine for years.

My Journal for Today: If you’re reading with me in this journal entry for today, you’re welcome to read along; but I recognize that God is using Os Hillman’s devotional and these messages from His word (and the song) above FOR ME. If what I write or what you hear in the song helps you, … fine; but this one was definitely for me.

When I saw today’s date was the 13th of a month (and in the 13th year of this century), my attention was peaked. Some of you know God’s use of the date of “the 13th” in my life, … having been married on a June 13th, having our first daughter on Aug. 13th … me getting my Ph.D. on a 13th, … me stepping into my first job on the 13th, … and God using Philippians 4: 13 on 4-13-83 to break me to the core when I was saved, … all of these dates used by God to bring me to Himself. So, when the 13th of a month rolls around, I usually look for God to send me something special. It doesn’t always happen; but it did today.

The highlight passage from Proverbs 19: 11, given to Os Hillman by God today and put in his devotional, clanged like a bell in my consciousness this morning. As you can read above in that passage and in a few related Proverbs, God’s wisdom wanted the reader to focus on the quality of PATIENCE, which the Lord wants to develop in all believers. I’ll let you ponder and meditate on these verses as I did this morning.

In my case, I was reminded that, from all of God’s “fruit of the Spirit,” which Paul documents in Galatians 5: 22-23, copied above, the one fruit which is most sorely undeveloped in my life is PATIENCE. And I can’t tell you how many times, as I’ve prayerfully developed as a disciple of Christ (always see Luke 9: 23 for that process), I’ve prayed the prayer which Queen Latifah sings about in that song to which I’ve linked you today, … ”Fix me, Jesus, … fix me!” I can’t tell you how many times over the years as a Christian (and it has been MANY!) that I’ve prayed, “Lord, help me to have more patience!”

And as you may know, when we pray prayers for more patience or maybe for more humility, God often uses very trying times or aggravating circumstances to mature these fruit of Christlikeness in our lives. So, every time my wife notices that I’m impatient, especially when I’m driving in traffic around our city, she will gently, and usually quietly, ask me, “Hey, Bill, what is it that God says about patience?” And it jogs me into realizing that once again I need to pray, … “Fix me, Jesus, … fix me!”

I’ll leave it to you to go through Paul’s list of God’s fruit basket above in Galatians 5. And, of course, we always need to realize that those qualities are nothing less than the qualities of Christ, which God has implanted in all true Christians; … yes, ALL of them. But because of our humanity, some of these fruit are not well-developed, … not ripened to completeness, as promised in Phil. 1: 6 (see above). But if I pray, “Fix me, Jesus!”; and I have PATIENCE (ugh!!), somehow on this 13th of a month God is going to do exactly what He promised in Phil. 1: 6; and one day I’ll even have the patience of Christ.

I just hope it happens in this life, rather than having to wait until the next.

My Prayer for Today … Fix me, Jesus, … fix me! … Amen