You have prayed the prayer of faith. You believe you have received the answer. You are confessing the Word. You are standing on God’s promise. You are expecting a miracle.

But instead of getting better, you grow worse.

Soon all you can think about is how tired you are, how fed up you are with waiting for your answer to come. You’ve had it with this situation and you’re about to say those two words that cost more believers their victory than anything else in the world: I quit!

Sound familiar? Sure it does. Everyone who has ever walked by faith has gone through times like that. Tough times. Maybe those times have tripped you up in the past. Maybe the devil has used them to pressure you into letting go of your faith. But I want you to know something. It doesn’t have to be that way.

There is a force so powerful, it can carry you through those hard times in triumph. It is a force so dynamic, the devil cannot stop it. It is a force that comes from the heart and character of God Himself, and it will take you from here to victory…every time. It’s the force of patience.

Patience is the force that keeps you from fainting under pressure. It is the quality that does not surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial.

“That sounds great, Gloria, but I don’t have that kind of patience!”

If you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life, you do! It’s a fruit of the spirit and God equipped you with it the moment you were born again. He placed it into your re-created human spirit right along with the other fruit of the spirit (read Galatians 5:22-23).

God didn’t give you just any old type of patience, either. He imparted to you His very own patience, and The Amplified Bible says He is extraordinarily patient (2 Peter 3:9). God has what it takes to get through hard times. He has the power to persevere until circumstances line up with His Word. Because you are born of His Spirit, you have that power too!

But just as water won’t flow from a faucet unless you open the valve and let it through, the reservoir of patience God has put within you won’t flow unless you release it by an act of your will.

I know that the pressure is on, and it can be intense. But patience will see you through. Open that valve, and let patience go to work!

Speak the Word

I develop the fruit of patience. I let her have her perfect work. (James 1:4)