Patience

I prayed:       God, Pastor asked me to lead Bible study tonight, but you know I haven’t prayed in a while. I haven’t even read the Bible in weeks. I am not qualified to lead a Bible study right now. I am human. I will mess up your message, but you can do anything. So please, give me a topic to speak on. Inform me, but I will mess it up. So I will not speak. You must speak through me so your people can receive the full truth, not my opinions.

He Answered:         The first topic that popped into my head was patience. I wanted to make sure I hadn’t just come up with it on my own, so I waited until the last minute to see what God’s word said about patience. No other topics came to me, and I started to feel like God hadn’t answered my prayer, so I just started studying.

Now for the last 30 years I have been the most impatient person I know. I thought, “What in the world can I teach others about THIS?”

I did my homework, found some verses, and decided to just be honest. I got to Bible study a little late, and I was honest. I confessed that I was usually very impatient. I said I didn’t know why, but patience was the topic that came to me, so that’s what we were going to discuss.

As I led the others through the verses I had found, I asked them to help me understand them. I asked the church members to teach me what they’ve learned about patience in their own walks with Christ. Toward the end of the Bible study I felt that feeling again; like warm peaceful water flowing over me, from my head to my chest and stomach. I knew then, through the others at Bible study, God did in fact answer my prayer. I wasn’t supposed to teach anybody anything. His answer was that this experience was supposed to teach me!