Patience is the Womb of Faith...

By Philip Amiola My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into different kinds of temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4 MKJV) Over the years, and especially in recent times, the Church has placed a lot of emphasis on faith and rightly so because the Christian walk is essentially a walk of faith (See Romans 1:17, Romans 10:9, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 2:8, Hebrews 11:6). We are saved through faith, we live by faith and we maintain our relationship with God by faith. Nonetheless, the Bible is clear about the need to supplement our diet of faith with other important ingredients which I like to call core vitamins. Patience is one of these core vitamins (See II Peter 1:4-8). In todays fast-paced world of jet travels, instant photography, fast food restaurants, high speed internet and what have you; it is not unlikely that patience has become alien to quite a number of us. Well, what exactly is patience? Patience is endurance. It is holding on to the Word of God without wavering regardless of circumstances. Patience is that quiet confidence that awaits the manifestation of what God has promised. It is holding on to the confession of our faith without faltering, knowing that He who called us is faithful (I Thessalonians 5:24). Abraham is one person that readily comes to mind here. In spite of contrary circumstances, he believed God. He agreed with God that he was Abraham father of many nations when he did not even have a child (now, thats faith) and he continued in faith for decades even when it seemed that nothing was happening (thats patience). In the process of waiting, Abraham kept meditating on the faith pictures that God had given him. He did not change his mind and revert to his old name. Rather, he continued to call himself and his wife by the names the Lord had called them even when the physical circumstances were obviously contrary.

Abraham is popularly known as Father of Faith. But really, I think hes Father of Faith and Patience. The fact is, he became Father of Faith because he was Father of Patience. His faith would have been unproductive if he had not added patience. Now, patience is not a passive resignation to fate. It is not accepting anything and everything the devil throws at us. Rather, patience is resisting the devil by actively standing on the Word. While waiting for the manifestation of Gods promise, we must continue to declare the truth of Gods Word with conviction. This is how we still the raging storms of doubt and fear that the devil brings our way as we await the physical reality of Gods Word. We must hold on to our confession of faith and we must be willing to hold on forever. That willingness to hold on to our confession until we see our manifestation is what the Bible calls patience. Patience is the womb of faith. There is a gestation period between your confession of faith and its physical manifestation. It's patience that nurtures faith through that gestation period. Patience provides a conditioned environment that shields faith from the harsh realities of external circumstances until the delivery day. Just like it takes a process of time for the germinal vesicle to become an ovum, the ovum to be fertilised by the sperm to give a zygote, and for the zygote to become a foetus and finally a complete human being (a new creation that did not exist before), it takes a similar process of time for the seed of God's Word to become implanted/engrafted in our hearts and create new realities that did not exist before. By faith, we confess the reality of things that are not, as though they were. By patience, we wait for the physical manifestation of what we have confessed. Just like the baby had existed in the realm of the spirit but it took a process of time to make it manifest in time, everything we need is already existing in another form but it takes a process to transform it into what we desire; and that requires patience. The reason many people don't receive the promise is because they've aborted it by lack of patience.

We all have a measure of faith. But from Hebrews 6:12-15, Hebrews 10:36 and other Scriptures, we see that it takes faith and patience to inherit the promise. For you have need of patient endurance, so that having done the will of God, you shall receive the promise. (You may want to look up these references in the Contemporary English Version and The Message). God has dealt to every man a measure of faith but every man has to develop patience by a process of spiritual workouts. Just like we develop endurance in sports and athletics by various exercises or tests, we develop patience in essentially the same way. When tests and trials come, we must see them as workouts designed to exert our spiritual muscles. We must not succumb passively; we must fight and fight on to victory (See Ephesians 6:10-18). The testing of our faith then produces patience. Faith without patience is like planting a seed and then uprooting the seedling before it has time to produce fruits. If we want to live fruitful lives, we must learn patience (Luke 8:15, James 5:7-8). Even God is patient, and He has made patience one of the built-in features of our universe. For instance, you cannot force a tree to produce fruits before its time. You cannot force the day to break before dawn. You cannot harvest immediately after you plant. The importance of patience cannot be overemphasised. I encourage every Christian to do a personal Bible Study on this crucial factor without which our faith becomes ineffective and unproductive. In the meantime, I want you to always remember this: No conception without faith; no delivery without patience. It takes faith to conceive and patience to deliver. Blessings!