Power of Prayer

I've really been thinking about something interesting today.

The last couple days have not been the best for me. There have just been a few things going on that have made me a little frustrated. But then I realized...what if the things that are frustrating me are direct results of my own prayers?

Due to some special circumstances within my life lately, it has been brought to my attention more than ever  how ridiculously impatient I am, and that's a problem. I've really looked at it as something that I want to work on and solve, so I've been very earnestly praying lately that God will help me build up my patience.

God always answers prayers anyways, but when you pray for something like patience, it's more of a practical thing that you can only build up by actively working on it through specific situations.

I mean, have you ever really thought about it that way?It's not bad to ask for patience, most of us could probably use more of it, but if you do, you had better believe that God is going to crack His almighty knuckles and say, "Okay.You want patience, so we'll build up your patience.But it's gonna be hard."

Because it's like I said before, something like patience has to be carefully built up through practice.He will absolutely work with you on it, but it might take some trying experiences to get you to the level you prayed for. I feel like that's kind of where I'm at right now with some stuff that has been going on. I hadn't truly thought about it til this afternoon, but I honestly believe that especially one experience in particular was to test my patience. I also think I didn't do so well with that test.

But my God is faithful, and as long as I hold up my end of the bargain and remain willing to work on it and try my best to improve, He'll keep working on it with me. Because, thank goodness, He has endless patience. He'll watch me get restless, then come to my senses....and all because He really loves me that much. :)