Dear Mike Vinson,

I really wish I could just email you with a “How are you and your family doing?” I’m sorry I take up so much of your time with my issues because I feel guilty. I just can’t always know where to go myself instead of bothering you all the time. I have had issues with really feeling angry and short tempered about little things. I find myself blowing up over someone cutting me off in traffic or being discourteous when driving by herding me into the side of the road because they don’t want to let me merge. Thank God I’m not a violent person by nature physically. I don’t curse people out, and I hold my anger in quite a bit. I know better and should be able to call upon the Lord to do better but haven’t. God says something to the effect of not getting tired of doing right, but I keep finding myself asking, “Why me? Why am I having to endure life with lacking the things I like?”

I try to make others feel better about themselves, but seldom do I see the same things when I need it. My whole life I have been underestimated and dismissed. It’s only when I know someone believes in me that I have risen to the occasion.

The thing that bothers me the most is I’m losing my patience with everything. I know there is a scripture that deals with this but I can’t find it. Can you help please? Your opinion in this would be welcome also.

Thank you,
K_____

Hi K____,

It is good to hear from you again and any time, even under these circumstances.

You say:

The thing that bothers me the most is I’m losing my patience with everything. I know there is a scripture that deals with this but I can’t find it. Can you help please? Your opinion in this would be welcome also.

You mention several other things in this email, but they really are all related to this one question concerning patience.

The answer is, yes, I certainly can help by “sending you God’s word to heal you” of the frustration that a lack of patience always produces.

Psa 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

There are very few chapters in God’s Word which deal with the subject of God’s working with mankind in “letting patience have its perfect work” more than this 107th chapter of Psalms.

James tells us this about the function of the exercise of patience in our lives:

Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

That is just how important the God-given virtue of patience is! “That you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

Think of this. The day is coming, and it will be soon simply because this entire “life is a vapor which appears for a moment then vanishes away”. You will learn to “count it all joy” when you are overlooked, cut off in traffic and taken advantage of by others.

Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

That day will not come until there is a great falling away and you are shown the man of sin who is within you sitting in God’s temple, demanding your total worship.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Peter says the same thing in these words:

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
1Pe 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
1Pe 4:15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or [as] a thief, or [as] an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
1Pe 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

God’s judgment begins with us if we really are His temple. It is first in us that the man of sin is revealed and destroyed with the brightness of the coming of the truths of the doctrines of Christ.

It is for that reason that Paul and James and Peter all tell us to rejoice in the trial of our faith and patience.

The 107th Psalm says the same:

Psa 107:8 Oh that [men] would praise the LORD [for] his goodness, and [for] his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Psa 107:10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, [being] bound in affliction and iron;
Psa 107:11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
Psa 107:12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and [there was] none to help.
Psa 107:13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, [and] he saved them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
Psa 107:15 Oh that [ men] would praise the LORD [for] his goodness, and [for] his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:16 For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
Psa 107:17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
Psa 107:18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
Psa 107:19 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, [and] he saveth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered [them] from their destructions.
Psa 107:21 Oh that [men] would praise the LORD [for] his goodness, and [for] his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24 These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that [men] would praise the LORD [for] his goodness, and [for] his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

There it is! God does not chasten and scourge just anyone. He does that only to those He loves, and He apparently loves me very much, because He has done many ‘wonderful works to this child of mankind’!

Heb 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Heb 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

God loves us if He sees fit to let us fulfill the seven plagues of the seven angels in this time instead of in the lake of fire:

Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Ours is a very special calling which requires special qualifications and chastening and scourging from our heavenly Father. If we are chastened now, we will not be chastened later.

1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

There is no blessing which can be compared to being chosen to be judged at this time:

Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Read carefully that 107th Psalm. Ask God to give you the strength to ‘offer him the sacrifice of thanksgiving’ even as He is performing in you all those wonderful works enumerated in that Psalm.

Let’s not forget this scripture:

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

The word for patience here comes from another Greek word that indicates cheerful endurance. So while we are admonished to ‘endure to the end’, it’s necessary to do it cheerfully, not begrudgingly.

As to feeling overlooked, your heavenly Father has you in His care at all times. If He knows the number of hairs on your head and knows when a bird falls from the nest, how much more important are you, a child of His. If he doesn’t forget these little sparrows which are of little value, how much more will He remember you for whom Christ died?

Luk 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
Luk 12:7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

You were right in saying:

… God says something to the effect of not getting tired of right.

These two scriptures confirm that. We wouldn’t have been admonished not to become weary if it were not the case that we would all be doing so. What you are going through is common to us all, though to the person enduring his/her trials, it is unique and trying indeed.

Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

2Th 3:13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

I hope these verses of God’s word will be of some edification to you. With the apostle Paul I will say:

Php 1:3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
Php 1:4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
Php 1:5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;
Php 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:

Your brother in Christ,

Mike