Thursday, June 19, 2014

Patience and its many gifts


"In your patience you shall possess your souls."  ~Luke 21:19

"By patience we have the keeping of our own souls; we command ourselves, and our passions are subdued to us; and 'commanding ourselves, we begin to possess that which we are.' Patience, then, is the guardian of faith, the fence of love, the strength of hope, the parent of peace. Patience protects humility, keeps meekness, is the soul of long- suffering, guides gentleness, strengthens perseverance. Patience makes the soul to be of one mind with God, and sweetens all the ills of life. It casts the light of heaven upon them and transforms them into goods. It makes the bitter waters sweet; the barren and dry land fruitful. Desolation it makes a loneliness with God; the parching of sickness to be the fire of His love; weakness to be His strength; wounds to be health; emptiness of all things to have things from Him; poverty to be true riches; His deserved punishments to be His rainbow of mercy; death to be His life." ~E. B. Pusey, English Anglican theologian, scholar, and a leader of the Oxford movement

Dear Lord, today I will wait patiently for You
for I know that You will stoop down to me and hear my cry.
(Psalm 40:2)

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