The Christian Working Woman

Presented by Julie Busteed I used to think there were seasons of waiting on God, but now I think there is always something I am waiting on from him. Maybe it’s waiting for some direction in one area of my work or waiting for something to come to an end or waiting for the next big thing. But aren’t we always waiting to hear from him? And since we are always in this “waiting room” of God’s timing for some kind or another, then what is the purpose? What is the benefit? Yet the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him (Isaiah 30:18). We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you (Psalm 33:20-22). There’s a blessing in the waiting room. There is hope. It’s not always my favorite place to be, but I’m not as anxious there as I used to be. I’ve grown in my trust of God, that he has what’s best in store for me, even if it seems difficult. I know I can trust him no matter what. And my goals and focus are ever more on my hope in him. Yes, you and I are living in the now and it’s a fallen world. But if you are a Christ-follower, there is hope of eternal life with God. The more I get to know him, study his Word, read his Word, pray, and meet and talk with other Christ-followers, the more I can rest in his timing. Not that it’s never frustrating or scary, but I know he will never leave me or forsake me. Do you have confidence in your relationship with him? If not, please, take some time right now to pray and ask for his help to get into his Word. He alone is our hope and salvation. He is trustworthy and loving. He waits to be gracious to you. If you are struggling with waiting on God and having patience to endure in a situation, then think about this. God’s silence doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care. He hears you and knows you. But maybe he has something better in mind for you. Or maybe the answer is no or not right now. But you are building your faith muscle as you wait and trust in him. I think Oswald Chambers says it beautifully: Some prayers are followed by silence (from God) because they are wrong, others because they are bigger than one can understand. It will be a wonderful moment for some of us when we stand before God and find that the prayers we clamored for in early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and that God’s silence has been the sign of the answer.[1] --- [1]  Chambers, Oswald, Oswald Chambers Daily Thoughts for Disciples, Christian Literature Crusade, 1976, p. 75.

Presented by Julie Busteed What happens when you are not patient and run ahead of God and take things into your own hands? That’s exactly what happened to King Saul. You can read the entire account in I Samuel 13:1-15 but let me summarize. Saul is the newly appointed first King over Israel. They’ve had some success at defeating their enemies. I guess King Saul is feeling pretty good about this. Then the Philistines—the enemy—assemble to fight and they have many chariots and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. When the Israelites see this, they are quaking with fear. Saul waits seven days for Samuel (the prophet and priest) to arrive to offer the burnt offering. He was following Samuel’s instructions (1 Samuel 10:8). But something happens—we’re not told what—but Samuel doesn’t show up in seven days. He’s late. And Saul seeing that his soldiers are frightened, seeing the strength and number of his enemies, takes things into his own hands and he offers the sacrifice to God (which by the way was against the law—only priests were to do this). And then guess who shows up at this exact moment—Samuel! And he asks Saul what’s going on, and Saul explains: “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering” (1 Samuel 13:11-12). Oh wow. Did you hear that? Saul’s saying things weren’t going as he thought they should. He was looking at his circumstances around him and becoming fearful and not looking at God. And so, he took things into his own hands—he felt “compelled” to ask for the Lord’s help in this way. And Samuel then tells him that he’s done a foolish thing. That he’s not kept the command that the Lord God gave him and as a result the Kingdom of Israel will be taken away from him, it will not endure. I do feel for Saul sometimes. It sounds like he convinced himself he was doing the right thing in rushing ahead of God and offering these sacrifices and seeking the Lord’s favor instead of waiting for Samuel. But it was not the right thing. How many times have you been anxious, got tired of waiting for God and took things into your own hands which then resulted in more trouble? Maybe you are so desperate to get out of a job or a project that you’ll do anything. I know. It’s hard to wait. But it can be even more dangerous to not wait. To make poor decisions and suffer those consequences. You might not have your kingdom taken away from you like Saul, but it could still end in difficulty. As the Psalmist says, wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord (Psalm 27:14 ESV)!

Presented by Julie Busteed Waiting on the Lord is hard. But he gives us promises that we can hang on to during this time. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31 ESV). Years ago, I was in a job that was not my favorite. There were many things that were fine, but the work itself was not really what I wanted to do. I felt like it wasn’t a good fit for me, and it was work that didn’t come naturally to me. For a long time, I complained about this. I would complain in my heart, to God, to my husband and search for ways to move on to something else. But the opportunity didn’t present itself. Finally, I remember crying—literally—to God about this and just pouring my heart out to him. And it’s not that I heard a loud voice, it was a soft gentle reminder that he is sovereign and to trust and wait on him. Instead of trying to change my circumstance, I began to change my thoughts—my mindset about the situation. It’s not that I became content and happy overnight, but I tried to focus on the things that were good. I also gave myself little rewards or encouragements for doing some of the hard things of the work. And by that, I mean taking a quick walk, getting another cup of coffee and so on. And slowly, I wasn’t as miserable! I think I complained less! Changing my attitude made a huge difference. My situation didn’t change right away either. I would still have some valleys of despair, but they became fewer and far between. Then, when an opportunity did arise, I was almost surprised! I was now actually more prepared for this next step having stayed where I was. And I wasn’t leaving my employer on bad terms—not burning any bridges. I know there are many different situations and some more difficult than what I was experiencing. And for your own mental and physical health you may need to take different actions. But I tell you this, for a couple of reasons. First take some time to reflect and think on the situation as objectively as possible. Are there some good and positive things about where you are right now? Then pour your heart out to God. Continue to seek him. Realize he has purpose in the waiting. And that nothing is ever wasted.

Presented by Julie Busteed When you’re in God’s waiting room do you ever think that if you just pray more or fast more or do something more that this will get God’s attention? That there is something you need to do. I used to think maybe I’m not in his will, doing something wrong, or not being persistent enough—which is why he’s not hearing or answering my prayer. Are you familiar with the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8)[1]? Jesus begins by telling his disciples this parable to show them they should always pray and not give up. And to me that meant relentlessly praying, even begging, and almost trying to bend his will to my prayers. But I don’t think that’s the point! Briefly the parable goes like this: He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally, he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me’” (Luke 18:2-5)! Here is an unjust corrupt judge who doesn’t fear God or care about people. And a widow, who particularly in those days is quite vulnerable. She has no provider or protector. And she’s asking for justice. Repeatedly. But the judge refuses. Finally, she wears him down because she keeps “bothering” him and he gives her justice. And to me this meant I need to wear God down with my prayer requests in order for him to answer. I thought that I needed to continually bug him to get his attention. That somehow the accumulation of my prayers would make a difference. I don’t think this is what Jesus was talking about. That would be equating God to this unjust judge, and he is not at all like that. He cares about us, he cares about justice, it’s his unchangeable character. And I am not like the nameless widow. God knows me, loves me, provides for and protects me. Jesus tells us why he told this parable in verse 1 to show that we should always pray and not give up. And that can be hard to do when you’re in that waiting room. When you and I persist in praying, in talking to God, our hearts become more inclined to his. It’s a life of prayer that we are called to—a life of continual conversation with God. And it’s more about how our hearts and minds can be transformed to his. So yes, pray continually. And trust that in his perfect timing he will answer. As the Psalmist said: I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I hope (Psalm 130:5 ESV). --- [1] Dr. Kent Hughes, “Living in the ‘Not Yet’” Series: Luke, January 8, 2008, https://preachingtheword.com/av_item.php?avid=579

Presented by Julie Busteed Waiting is not my favorite thing! Whether it is waiting in a store line, waiting in traffic, waiting for a doctor’s appointment, or waiting for the coffee maker to finish! The most challenging thing can be to wait on God to answer my prayer or give direction. Or waiting for a difficult situation to resolve, or a hard season of life to ease up. We are called to persevere. To continue to trust God and wait on him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him (Lamentations 3:25). When I read the account of Noah in Genesis 8—a familiar story to most of us—I am encouraged to trust God in the waiting. Noah obeyed God in building the ark and gathering all the animals. Scholars think the entire time he and his family were on the boat was about a year. After all the rain and flooding, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove returned and so he waited some more and sent the dove out again. Finally, the dove returns with an olive leaf. Now Noah could see the water was gone but he waited until God told him it was time to get out of the boat—till the ground was completely dry. It probably seemed like he could have left the boat earlier since he couldn’t see any water. But he trusted, obeyed and waited. After being in that boat for a year, I imagine it had to be challenging! But he trusted God. There was purpose in the waiting. Another familiar story about waiting and trusting is raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11). Jesus and his disciples get word that his friend Lazarus is ill. And Jesus’ response is to wait! He says to his disciples, Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him (John 11:14-15). What? How does that make any sense to the disciples! When they finally arrived, Lazarus had been dead and in the tomb for four days. And to everyone’s amazement Jesus calls him to come out of the tomb. Now up to then Jesus had done many miraculous things—many healings, providing food, casting out demons. But here he publicly shows even more of his glory by raising Lazarus from the dead. If they had not waited, but gone to Lazarus right away, then it would have been just another healing. But by waiting—being patient—and even suffering as the sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha had done, they are given even a greater view of who Jesus is—his character and his love. Maybe that’s where you are right now. Deep in the middle of a dark time. You don’t have any hope. You look around at your circumstances and it seems bleak and hopeless. But maybe God is using this waiting time to draw you closer to him, so that you can trust him more deeply, and then be shown his glory more greatly.

We all know prayer is our lifeline to God, and we are encouraged to cast all our cares upon God, because he cares for us. We know God is intimately interested in our everyday lives, and he rejoices when we rejoice and mourns when we mourn. Jesus empathizes with all our weaknesses because he walked this earthly road like you, and I do. So, it is normal and wise for us to pray about the circumstances of our lives—to bring all our concerns to God in prayer. As the old hymn says: “Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” But I want us to consider the content of our prayers. If all your prayers were answered, would it make a difference for eternity? That’s the exact question my pastor posed, and I’ve been giving that a lot of thought. Do I pray primarily—not exclusively but primarily—about things that would make a difference for eternity if my prayers were answered? For example, how do you pray for your family and friends? Do you primarily pray for their spiritual condition? Do you pray for the believers to walk worthy of their call? Do you pray that they will use their gifts to glorify God and do the good works he planned for them to do? If they are not yet believers, do you pray mostly that God will do whatever it takes for them to see their need of salvation? That kind of praying is more important than their health, their financial problems, their success, even their happiness. Sure, we all want our family and friends to be happy, but maybe they need some tough times to bring them back to God. If all your prayers for your family and others were answered, would they maybe just have better grades at school, or better jobs, or more money, or nicer homes? Those are all quite nice, and we can pray about them. But more importantly, if all your prayers for your family and friends were answered, would they start to live more wholeheartedly for Jesus? I have a fairly large extended family; if my count is right, there are more than 90 of us counting down from my Mom and Dad, including children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and their mates. Whew, that’s a lot of people. I think of the heritage handed to us by my parents—simple people living lives of integrity and honor to Jesus, a godly heritage as the Bible describes it. And as I pray for all of this crew, my first and most consuming prayer is that they will all walk worthy of the teaching and guidance they have received, that they will pass on to their children the lessons passed on to them, the truth handed to them. More than anything else, I pray for their spiritual welfare. That matters for eternity. I encourage you to examine the content of your prayers for your family. Pray for their physical needs, their success, their health—yes, of course. But make it your habit to pray mostly and primarily for their spiritual condition, for their relationship with God through Jesus Christ. How do you pray for the world—this huge world we live in? In the Bible, God’s people are urged to engage with the world around them and not to withdraw from it. That means we should always pray for things and people outside of our own personal circle. Recently, I intentionally reviewed the content of my prayers, and I realized that I often pray for health issues for people I know; I pray for increased financial support for this ministry; I pray for pastors at my church and ministry there. But it became rather clear that my prayers were often limited to my world. How about you? Review what you’ve prayed for the past few days. Have your prayers primarily revolved around you and people you know? God wants us to pray about the world around us. How do you do that? Well, first you become educated and aware of what’s happening outside your world. A few years ago, along with a coworker in my church, I became aware for the first time of the scourge of sex trafficking in our country and our city.

The question today is: How can you become a God-confident woman or man? First, you must continue to grow in your knowledge of Jesus and the Word by making them a daily priority in your life. There’s no “secret sauce” here. It is back to the basics of saturating your life with the truth that comes only from God’s Word. This is written Word—the Bible—and the Word made flesh, dwelling among us—Jesus Christ. As you continue to know God better, you build spiritual muscles which results in God-confidence. Then, most likely, God will give you an opportunity to do something that will be too big and too hard for you to do. Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone and follow the Lord, even if you are a bit fearful? I find when God calls me to serve in a new way, I’m always in over my head. But he who calls us to a new service gives us what we need. That’s what we call walking by faith not by sight. What are your gifts and abilities you have not yet used in serving the Lord? Find ways to use them. He didn’t gift you just so you could get a good job and earn more money. He wants to you to serve others. Never compare yourself to others. You don’t have to do what someone else does or measure up to someone else’s expectations. But you will need to step out on faith and follow God’s leading. Then you will be confident of this: ...that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). You will be living in God-confidence, and it will be amazing. It will be tiring, yes, and not always easy but always fruitful and satisfying. And the joy of the Lord will be your strength.

What is hindering you from having God-confidence? Being confident in yourself is very risky because pretty soon that self will let you down. But being confident in God—who he is and how he sees you—is a firm foundation that holds up no matter what. What is keeping you from having this God-confidence? Could it be a sin you haven’t confessed and forsaken? Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1). Do you give up too easily and too quickly? Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him (James 1:12). Is your past imprisoning you? Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14). Are you afraid to fail? For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). Has the enemy of your soul succeeded in making you feel unworthy, or keeping you burdened with sins which God forgave? I want to encourage you today to claim your right—your inheritance—as God’s son or daughter. You have God’s Spirit, and His Spirit makes it possible for you to be God-confident. His confidence is powerful, loving, and self-disciplined. Are you “taking advantage” of what is yours through God’s Spirit? Are you aware of the Spirit’s presence and the power you have as a result?

As Christ-followers, the Bible says we should put no confidence in the flesh. It’s pretty undependable. But you can and should be totally God-confident. Confident that you have become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ and confident that God has good plans for you—good works for you to do which he determined before you were born. There’s nothing to be gained by being constrained and handcuffed by a lack of confidence. James put it this way: But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do (James 1:6 – 8). James says if you’re blown and tossed—like happens with lack of confidence—you are unstable in all your ways. You need confidence to be what God created you to be and do the good works he put you here to do. And the confidence you need is not self-confidence, but rather it is God-confidence. What is hindering you from this God-confident life? Many times, it is the constant thought you simply are not good enough. Thoughts like: you’ve sinned too much; your past is too bad; you can never be worthy. You know where that comes from, don’t you? Satan will tell you lies about yourself, like thinking you’re not good enough. But remember this wonderful truth. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Whether condemnation is coming at you from others or yourself, you are believing a lie because God never deals with us through condemnation—making us feel unworthy and without hope. The Holy Spirit who indwells every believer will convict you of sin for the purpose of helping you repent and get rid of the drag on your spiritual life. But God never deals with you through condemnation; that’s what the enemy tries to do. When the enemy is successful at destroying your God-confidence by his sneaky and sinister words of condemnation, he is keeping you from the joy of the Lord, which is your strength, and from the abundant life Jesus died to give you. You’re missing all the good stuff! But there’s hope in Jesus!

The second tool you need to be God-confident is to know how God sees you. God wants you to be confident in how he has gifted you and how he wants to use you. Let’s begin by affirming what God has said about us: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well (Psalm 139:13-14). I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:28). Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and said, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”? Or “I am safe in the hand of Jesus—no one can snatch me out of his hand”? As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love (John 15:9). Have you ever declared: “I am the one Jesus loves”? God-confidence depends on being totally confident of who you are in Christ. But it doesn’t come in one swoop—it comes through getting to know God better and better. You have been gifted to do something good for the Kingdom. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10 NASB). When you’re willing to take the next steps where God is leading you, to do those good works he prepared for you, then you can be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). That is God-confidence!

Here’s an interesting question: Do you think God wants you to face your world, your life, with unwavering confidence? Is there anything to be gained by lacking confidence? What message does it send if you and I, as Christ-followers, appear uncertain or doubtful? Does that bring glory to God? On the other hand, does it bring glory to God if you have the kind of self-confidence the world says is necessary? This confidence is proud and self-focused, self-assured and braggadocious? It brings glory to yourself. We certainly need confidence. But putting a lot of it in yourself is risky, because it’s undependable. You can feel confident one day or about one thing, and then the rug gets pulled out from under you the next day and there goes that self-confidence out the door. It’s God-confidence you and I need, not self-confidence. His confidence makes a difference in the way we live and our ability to do what God put us here to do. And it will look different on each of us. However, there are certain things we must be confident of to face life with God-confidence. I want to share some necessary tools for the God-confident woman. The first tool you need is to be totally confident of your faith. Confident in your relationship to God through Jesus I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day (2 Timothy 1:12b). Confident in God’s sovereignty For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth (Psalm 71:5). Confident in God’s love For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). Confident God will never leave you or forsake you God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b). Confident that God answers prayer This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us (1 John 5:14). Now, if you are confident of those things, then you have the foundation for God-confidence. That’s where it begins.

Holding on, hanging in there, being patient, sitting in the waiting room—none of those come easy for me. And being put on hold on the telephone is particularly annoying—don’t you agree? So, today more than anything else I’m talking to me, and you can listen in, as I remind myself again that I have to hold on when I’m on hold. When you think of someone in the Bible who was on hold, you most likely think of Job. Talk about holding on when he was on hold, nobody has ever endured more than Job did while waiting for God to move. In Job 6:8, 11-12 he says: Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for. What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze? And in chapter seven, he goes on to say: My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again (Job 7:6-7). His words may express your heart today. Like Job, you may be saying or thinking: Why hasn’t God granted my request? I don’t have the strength to keep holding on. After all, I’m just flesh! I’ve lost hope, and I’ll never be happy again. For most of us, this feeling of hopelessness doesn’t show itself outwardly so much as it corrupts us on the inside. It takes the form of what Thoreau called “quiet desperation.” You keep going, saying the right things, and maintaining a semblance of normalcy, but on the inside you’ve truly given up. You’re going through the motions of a marriage or a job; you’re making people think everything’s okay with your children or parents, but in reality, you’re emotionally detached; there’s no more fight left in you, and you’re almost at the place where you really don’t care. I want to share three simple truths that will help you hold on when you’re on hold. And the first one is: Trust in God’s Sovereignty. That simply means you continue to believe that nothing happens in God’s universe outside of God’s influence and authority. And you believe the same is true in your life. God is sovereign in your life. Therefore, you can trust that in his sovereignty, he will make all things work together for your good, even the evil and wrongs of others and the cruelty of this sin-infested world. Believe me, I know it’s not easy to trust when you’re on hold, especially when it looks like your world is crumbling around you. I think of a friend who went through years of pain and suffering from an unfaithful husband and a broken marriage, death of two children, another child who walked away from God, and other significant losses. Honestly, she was a Job-story for today, and I often wondered how she made it through. Obviously, all those things left deep scars and hurt, but she turned it into opportunity for her to minister to others. She completed a biblical counseling degree, and now she has a voice to help others who are “on hold” because she has walked deep, dark roads. In God’s sovereignty and as only God can do, he turned her sorrow into dancing and has given her a broader, more effective ministry as a result. So, if you can put your trust in God’s sovereignty today, regardless of your feelings, and simply repeat that you believe he is still in control, that is step one in holding on while you’re on hold. Step two is to Trust in God’s Timing. Listen to these verses from Psalm 37:5-7: Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. God’s timing often seems so inappropriate to us. What possible good can come from waiting any longer? That’s how we see it. I can look back on my life and see how the waiting periods of my life were there for a purpose—a purpo...

Presented by Lauren Stibgen Do you view patience as passive? Patience is anything but passive behavior. In fact, patience is powerful. Remembering God’s power, his patience, and the fact that we are made in his image can help us rethink this attribute. In our society, patience often is viewed as quiet, timid, and, as I stated a moment ago, passive. We get this sense of waiting—somewhat of a pause. This waiting, patience, and pause can give us the space we need to advance in ways that remain unseen by others until the moment of action. Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone (Proverbs 25:15). Think about the art of persuasion. We hear about it in business a lot. Persuasion is defined as the action or fact of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something through reason or argument. Persuasion isn’t fast. It requires patience. Patience to learn about someone’s objections to what you are trying to get them to believe, patience to prepare for how you want to present your idea or solution, patience to get the other party to even be willing to meet with you, patience to meet on more than one occasion. I could go on with this list. Resisting the urge to impatiently blurt out what you want, why your way is better, why your company should win a bid, or why what you want or need is imperative. It can mean the difference between ultimately winning and losing. Patience listens. Patience walks away and thinks. Patience is not argumentative. In Proverbs 25:15, we read that a soft tongue will break a bone. To me, this feels like well thought out, patient words. Words that are planned in advance and not hasty and harsh. Words that are considerate of the other person’s point of view. Ultimately, this soft approach can break someone who has a long-held point of view. Our aim with using the fruit of the Spirit of patience with persuasion and a soft tongue should be more about sharing the gospel than it is about winning in our work, business, or career. The biggest win for us is to see someone know the saving power of Jesus!

Presented by Lauren Stibgen Do you have a colleague who gets on your last nerve? Do situations in the workplace just get to you sometimes? How we display patience at work with others reflects our faith. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:24-26). We surely cannot accomplish this with impatience! Think of a simple example of showing patience during a meeting. You wait and wait to make a statement. In fact, you think it is a very important point. Your colleague seems to be droning on and on about a topic with which you wholly disagree. In your impatience, do you end up so annoyed that you quarrel over the relevance of what they are saying, or do you wait patiently for them to speak, carefully listening so that you can perhaps patiently present a counter point? I think we have all been in this scenario. Your patience in a situation like this can help you reflect more respect and help others to listen to you! Are you perhaps charged with training new hires as they start with your company? Maybe these new hires are even new to the workforce. Sometimes they just don’t catch on as quickly as you would like. Are you impatient and quick to judge them as not able to do the job at hand, or do you patiently teach them to do the job well? Ultimately, 2 Timothy 2:24-26 reminds us our opponents—in our case those that we work with—need to be instructed and dealt with gently by us. The instruction to lovingly display our patience in all circumstances, can be a good way to live out what I often call Faith at Work 1.0—showing up differently so that someone asks why. But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). Showing up with patience at work when people frustrate you can be just one way you start a conversation about Jesus with them. Don’t waste this opportunity with impatience! I am praying for you to increase your patience at work today!

Presented by Lauren Stibgen Many things can happen when we are impatient! Impatience brews increasingly when there is a difference between the pre-conceived or set amount of time we have in mind for something to happen and when it actually occurs. The fact remains we are merely human, and God is God alone. I sometimes wonder if the creation of the measurement of time is something God has used to demonstrate this. If we had no concept of time, we could not grow in learning to be more patient! One of the ways that a lack of patience can often show up is jealousy. We see something we want or are aspiring to happen for someone else, and we become jealous. This can cause us to act impulsively in our own will, often to results we then regret. Sarah, then Sarai, was impatient. Her husband Abram was the promised Father of Israel, yet she failed to conceive and bare a son for him. In her impatience, Sarai enrolled their Egyptian slave, Hagar to know her husband. The result was Hagar’s pregnancy and the birth of Ishmael. Sarai became jealous of Hagar and treated her poorly. God then renewed his covenant with Abram, and called him Abraham and Sarai, Sarah. Sarah gave birth to Isaac, but with continued jealousy from Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away. You can read more about this in Genesis chapters 15-18. Sometimes our haste to see something come to pass can make us jealous of someone else we see in the circumstance we want. Have you been searching for a new job? Maybe it is taking longer than you expected, so you take a job because you need to work. A friend suddenly lands their dream role, and they weren’t even looking! In your impatience, how do you respond to this friend? Are you loving? Are you jealous? How can you lovingly show up and trust that God will send the perfect job for you, in his timing. Acting out of impatience can cause us to make hasty choices that can lead to jealous feelings.

Presented by Lauren Stibgen We love it when things happen quickly! Wouldn’t it be great if the dream that came to your mind could just—poof—happen tomorrow? I admit, the thought of a good vision suddenly happening muses in my mind. Culturally, this is sometimes referred to as manifesting something. Basically, if you think about it enough and envision it as done, then it will be so. You and I know only God can perform a mighty miracle like this, and more often than not, he prefers to use the long game of endurance to help us build that one fruit of the Spirit we are talking about this month—patience. The more I thought about enduring in patience, I realized it is part of how God created us in his image. About 4,000 years passed from the fall in Genesis to Jesus in the Gospels. During this time, God endured in patience while his people fell in and out of obedience. Our God is a super patient God. As his people, we really need to work on this enduring part! Let’s consider the story of Moses and Mt. Sinai. This is the time he had to go up to meet with God to receive the commandments for the people of Israel. First, he had to cut two giant tablets of stone. While we don’t know how long this took, I can imagine this took patience in the form of endurance. Next, he went up for 40 days in the presence of the Lord. The Lord himself inscribed those stone tablets with the 10 Commandments for his people. During those 40 days, the people of Israel did not endure patiently! In Exodus 32 you can read more about the Israelite’s impatience and their demands on Moses’s brother Aaron to create something for them to worship—the golden calf. They were so impatient in waiting on God, they used their worldly possessions of gold and jewelry to create this golden calf. Moses comes down from Mt Sinai to this sight and drops the tablets—breaking them into pieces. The word of God—his own penmanship—shattered! After the destruction of this man-made idol, Moses again cuts two more tablets and heads back up Mt. Sinai for another 40 days. God must redo the tablets for Moses to take back down to the remaining people of Israel. How often are you trading the endurance God may be calling you to for something you are making for yourself? Are you leaning into what culture tells you to do? Going it alone—creating your own destiny? We are created in God’s image, and God is very patient! He wants us to be patient with him! God’s timing is always perfect!

Presented by Lauren Stibgen For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). You have likely heard this verse many times, but what does John 3:16 have to do with patience? When I think about my own salvation, I would say God was patient! In fact, he waited 30 years for me to realize Jesus was my savior! Patience first comes to us from God himself, reflected in the love he has for us at the cross. In our worldview, this seems slow, but not in God’s standard. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). God is just on time—his time. Let’s consider love again, but in the context of the greatest commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). Now, how is love described? 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 leads with love is patient and kind. Love is patient! Who should we have patience with? First, we need to have patience with God! We will explore this more, but this looks like trusting him when we are in the valleys of life and when we feel like our prayers are going unanswered. It looks like endurance during trials and perseverance when we just want something to happen already! Next, we need to have patience with our neighbors, which is basically everyone! Our neighbors are our bosses, colleagues, and subordinates. They are vendor partners and partners within the communities our businesses are part of. It is even the community you are building on a social platform like LinkedIn or members of a business association related to your profession. You have a lot of neighbors to love! Rather, you have a lot of neighbors with whom to be patient!

Do you know what is probably the most difficult command of God's for me to obey? It's: Stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes (1 Samuel 12:16). Come on, Lord; why "stand still"? Why not "get busy and do this and that and then you'll see the great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes"? That would be so much easier for me. As I mentioned, I don't like standing still. I hate standing still. I love movement. I love busyness. I love activity. I love to-do lists. Let's go; let's do; let's make things happen. You can do it. Just keep trying. Keep on keepin' on. Those words are music to my ears, but not "stand still.” Why is it so hard for us to take our hands off and let God run the show? Well, to answer that question for myself, I would say it's hard for me to stand still because I'm a controller. I want to be in charge. That's my personality, and I'm much more comfortable when I'm running things than when I'm having to take orders. Maybe you can relate to that. I'd rather drive than be a passenger; I'd rather give a presentation than listen to one; I'd rather lead than follow. So, I constantly struggle to take control of any situation I'm in. Therefore, that passage from 1 Samuel 12:16—stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes—is hard for me to do. When you dig a little deeper under the need to control, you discover that you think you can do it better than anybody else, and you don't trust others as much as you do yourself. Ouch! There's a lot of pride and sinfulness tucked in that controlling spirit, isn't there? That's hard to take, but it’s part of the truth we must face—or at least I’ve had to face it about myself. At one point in my life when I was going through a particularly difficult period of "standing still," I would get frustrated and start to take action. And each time I took the controls back in my own hands, I heard the quiet voice of God in my mind saying to me, quite simply, "Can't you trust me?” That's what it takes to stand still—trust. And when you and I are willing to take our hands off, give up the control, and stand still, we are saying to Jesus, "I trust you. You're smarter than me. You can run this show better than I can.” And when we stand still and demonstrate our faith in him, he is pleased. Standing still also is hard for me because I'm not a patient person. I want things to happen now. I hate waiting. My mind tells me, "If you're standing still, nothing is happening.” But God's Word says: Stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes. I think one reason I am not a patient person is because I hate loose ends. I want to complete the loop and make sure every package has a neat bow on it before moving on. But so often, life is full of loose ends, and we have to stand still and let them be. Paul wrote that patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit, one of the types of evidence that God's Spirit is in control of your life. Well, I can sure tell you that when I am patient, it is not me. It is God's Spirit in me. I’ve learned to pray a lot about being patient, and believe it or not, I am more patient today than I used to be. God is helping me learn how to stand still and let him do it! Here are some little secrets that are helping me learn how to stand still. When you are emotional about any situation, it is not the time to act. Stand still until your emotions have calmed down and you can be certain that you're thinking straight. Just today I dashed off an email to tell someone how to do something more effectively—or so I thought—but thankfully before I hit the send button, God’s Spirit just urged me not to send it. So, for once I didn’t let the emotional reaction of the moment cause me to do something without thought or prayer. Often, we really want to do something when we're upset or angry, because our emotions are at such a high.

I am giving you five biblical principles, which can help you when you’re dealing with difficult people, particularly on your job. Today, our fifth and final principle is: The “Speak Kind Words” Principle Here are two verses from Proverbs that tell us how important it is to guard our words carefully and speak words of kindness. Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up (Proverbs 12:25). Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a ruling rightly given (Proverbs 25:11). Rightly given words are those which are strategically selected and gently delivered. They fit the situation perfectly. With these words, you can change an ugly environment or situation into something beautiful—like apples of gold in settings of silver. For example, suppose you had to confront a person on your job who is repeatedly late to work. Which of these two approaches would be rightly given words? “I want to point out something that is bothering me. You’ve been late to work a lot, and it just drives me crazy. I want every person here on time every day. You’re paid to be here on time, so I’ll be expecting you to be on time every day from now on. I hope that is clear.” “I’ve noticed you have some difficulty getting to work on time. Perhaps there is some good reason for that; if so, you need to tell me so we can work it out by cutting your lunch time or having you work later each day. Is there some reason that makes it difficult for you to be here on time each day?” The first example would cause a defensive, angry reaction and may or may not solve the problem, while the second approach shows some concern for the individual while at the same time making it clear tardiness cannot be tolerated. Those are rightly given words. Often our choice of words makes all the difference in how responsive the other person will be.

Have you ever worked with someone who was arrogant? A person who tried to tell you what to do and had delusions of grandeur? I’m examining some of the difficult relationships you may encounter on your job. As I've noted, one of the many purposes of difficult relationships is to teach us needed and important lessons. And humility is certainly an important lesson we can learn through an arrogant coworker. The “Humble Yourself” Principle Jesus says: For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Luke 14:11). Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time (1 Peter 5:6). Have you learned to look for opportunities to humble yourself? Now, I’m not talking about false humility, such as running yourself down, refusing to accept a compliment, or walking around with your head hung low. Most every day we will find opportunities to humble ourselves. For example, if you work with a bossy coworker, it is humbling to keep your mouth shut and not say something back to him or her. It is humbling to take his or her suggestion. I began asking God to show me when and how to humble myself. It’s a good prayer and I recommend it to you. I found that not insisting on my rights was a key way to humble myself; not talking about myself or my accomplishments was another. Not needing to have the last word is another good way to humble yourself. But don’t lose sight of the promises given to us when we truly are willing to humble ourselves. We will be exalted. Notice Peter said we will be lifted up in due time. That's probably not as soon as you would like it to be, but it will be in the right time after you have learned the valuable lesson of humbling yourself. If you have a difficult person to deal with today, one who is arrogant or treats you in a condescending way, ask God to show you when you should humble yourself with this person. You’ll be amazed at the blessing it will bring to you when you practice this principle. And humbling yourself is much easier than having to be humbled!