“At its root, impatience is confusion about control. Impatience is the rotten fruit of self-sovereignty.”- Jared C. Wilson
Today, Jared Wilson covers Nine Irrefutable Laws of Followship #4-6, as found in Chapter 7 of The Imperfect Disciple.
4. Be Ye Patient. Our impatience, Pastor Wilson states, grows from our belief that people and circumstances must operate as if we’re the center of the universe. Also, even with this belief, people who treat us well test our patience. As Jared quips, there’s “no holiness so fickle as the false holiness of the self-righteous.”
Conversely, the gospel cultivates patience in us with a humbling that brings us down to ground level at the foot of the cross. There we learn to regard others with more thoughtfulness – and more patience. As we mature in Jesus, we see more of our inadequacy, not less. Furthermore, our subsequent humility results in patience with God.
5. Be Ye Kind. Jared notes our need to be grateful for the big and little reminders helping us not take God’s grace lightly. The gospel, then, provides the exclamation point. As we experience God’s kindness in and through our repentance, we find more kindness to afford others. Pastor Wilson stresses the importance of acts of kindness:
“To be unkind to others, in fact, is to disbelieve God’s kindness and to spit on it. For a follower of Jesus to be unkind is to depict Jesus as unkind. But indeed, because almighty God has provided us with his inexhaustible kindness, we find an ever-deepening well of kindness for others.”
6. Be Ye Good. In Mark 10:18, Jesus tells a man who ran up to him that “no one is good except God alone.” Thus, we call Jesus good only because we call Him God.
Therefore, if we’re to receive the goodness that comes from the Holy Spirit, it’s because the Holy Spirit connects us to the very goodness of Jesus. We’re justified by faith through Christ.
Today’s question: What Bible verses, Christian books or songs help quell your impatience – confusion about control? Please share.
tomorrow’s blog: “If we are faithless, he (Christ) remains faithful”
