Faith, Trials and Patience

          These are the days when patience grows thin.  By this, I mean that we don't seem to possess a lot of patience.  We have a difficult time waiting for anything.  With me, it all began with the Lone Ranger Decoder Ring which cost me twenty-five cents and two box tops from some type of cereal.  Then came the long process of waiting for it to arrive in the mail.  it seemed like days would go by before the little box arrived in the mail.  These days, we have the ability to order something and then to watch it go from the loading dock to the delivery company and then every stop it makes as it winds its way across the country.  I had ordered some items from Krogers and waited for the box to arrive.  It said it was coming yesterday.  Then, I took a nap and went to the computer afterwards and there was an email that the package had been delivered.  I opened the front door and there it was. We still like to have things take place sooner than expected because of our impatience.  James 1:3 says, " Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."
          Patience is something that is often sought for but no one wants to get it especially when we know how it is going to come.  God just doesn't give us a basket full  of patience.  It is produced by certain actions that take place in our lives.  We have often read how that tribulation produces patience and who wants tribulation.  This verse puts it in another light when it says that patience is going to be produced by the trying of your faith.  That sounds like more unpleasant things taking place in our lives.  As we go through life, the trial of our faith produces patience and it also produces an increase in our faith.  God starts out small in our lives and the daily experiences find us being challenged more and more producing more faith and more patience.  It seems that everyone is at a different level in regard to the trying of their faith.  Some believers are facing the possibility of losing their lives because of their faith while others are trying to cope with insults from other people.  Both are experiencing trials in their faith but they are certainly at different levels.  Your faith may undergo some trials today.  We could better say that since you are a believer, your faith will undergo trials today because that is how you are going to grow.  Praise God that He is not finished with us yet and we are indeed growing day by day.