“…being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father…” Colossians 1:11
More and more I need endurance and patience. Maybe it’s the because the world seems to be spiraling down into a cesspool of corruption, greed and selfishness. People seemed lost in their own worlds with cell phones glued to their ears, oblivious to anyone around them. Technology is supposed to contact us, but it seems it is isolating us more and more.
I need patience and endurance with myself. My body is not working the way it once did. I wake up with aches and pains that do not go away. It is harder to lose weight because of all the abundance of unhealthy food choices at my fingertips as I walk through the grocery store. Living right takes discipline and effort, and some days I am short of both.
I need patience and endurance daily. But the way to get that is not to concentrate on the negatives out there, but to lift my eyes to Heaven and “in all things give thanks”. It is to be joyful no matter what is going on, what challenges I face – whatever heartaches, body aches and soul aches happen. That is when the strengthened power flows through me with a renewed attitude of thankfulness for a God who loves, protects, corrects and guides me, who has great plans for me and sacrificed His life so I can be forgiven and renewed. Then and only then can I endure with patience my shortcomings, my weaknesses, the corruption in the world around me, and the inevitable clash with it. Only through thankfulness do I see my own need for mercy and humbly have mercy for others I see.
Dear Lord, let me begin each day with thanksgiving and praise to You. Let the attitude of gratitude in all circumstances set the stage for my day, so that whatever comes my way, I will have the strength to receive it, endure it, and patiently embrace it as a gift from You. Your will be done for me as it was through Your Son through whom I pray. Amen.
