The Insight of Patience
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series, where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek to understand the insight of patience.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Insight of Patience
"Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James, Chapter 1, Verse 4
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we explore the insight of patience. What is its genesis and why is it necessary for us to exercise it? Experience has taught us that this is a vital quality that must be mastered to enjoy tranquility of spirit and to restrain the hounds of anticipation. We will examine three kinds of anticipation. First there is the anticipation of an experience that we consider good and look forward to it. Then there is the anticipation of an experience that we don’’t know whether it is good or bad and therefore it fills us with ambivalence. We can’’t get our arms around it and have no basis for adjusting to it. Then finally there is the anticipation of an experience that we consider bad and therefore dread. We shall provide some insights into these kinds of anticipatory experiences in the need for patience.
The need for patience arises because we live in a time-space universe, where everything is slowly changing. The intervals of time and the separations of space mean that things do not happen instantly, and when they do happen, they do not happen everywhere at the same time. Being free will creatures, we can act instantly, but the ramifications of a given decision do not happen instantly. It requires time and space for the full consequences of a decision to play itself out. "Time is essential to all types of human adjustment--physical, social, or economic. Only moral and spiritual adjustments can be made on the spur of the moment, and even these require the passing of time for the full outworking of their material and social repercussions."
Let’’s consider the anticipation of an experience that we consider good. We can best see this kind of undiluted anticipation in a child. Christmas is a great time for most small children, and as the time draws near, their anticipation increases. On Christmas eve, they are almost beside themselves and have to be restrained by their parents. They can hardly wait until the next morning when gifts will be opened. Reluctantly they retire for the night but wake up bright and early the next morning, eager to satisfy their long wait. As adults we are more restrained emotionally, but we still have the same anticipation raging through our souls. And sometimes the anticipation of a good experience causes us to ignore the present moment. We know that no matter how eager we may be for the anticipated experience to begin, we cannot get around the barriers of time and space.
In the experience of life, we must learn to possess our souls in patience, and the best way to do this is to focus fully on the experience that we are traversing in that instance. If we fully appreciate the values and meanings of the present experience, we will not be tempted to disregard those values and meanings for values and meanings of a future experience. We must always remember that the values and meanings we are acquiring during a given experience are essential for the foundation of the next experience. We must be loyal to the current experience that we are undergoing.
““Loyal persons are growing persons, and growth is an impressive and inspiring reality. Live loyally today--grow--and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole." We cannot increase our growth by anticipation, nor can we shorten the time required to acquire divine values and meanings by prematurely acting, by being disloyal to the present experience. We must remember that growth towards divine perfection requires the incorporation of the divine values and meanings into our souls. If we prematurely end an experience by refusing to continue in it, then we deprive ourselves of those emerging divine values and meanings that the experience is supplying.
"There must be perfection hunger in man's heart to insure capacity for comprehending the faith paths to supreme attainment." Only the supreme desire for divine perfection will ensure that we walk the path of experience with the correct spirit.
Now we consider the anticipation of ambivalence. This state is produced when we have no idea whether the experience is good or bad, so called. We don’’t know which way to proceed, and we tend to flounder. We don’’t know exactly what divine values and meanings await us in the experience of ambivalence. In the experience of positive anticipation, we look forward to enjoying pleasant aspects, and in the experience of negative anticipation, though we dread going forward, we know that we must muster our courage. But in the experience of ambivalence, we don’’t know whether to come or go, emotionally speaking. But though we start off with ambivalence, we shortly develop some attitude towards it. And we should remember at all cross roads of experiences, the Spirit of Truth will speak saying: "This is the way." It will unfailingly point our souls in the direction of the correct values and meanings. By seeking to do the Father’’s will, we receive those values and meanings that move us out of ambivalence into the positive direction of growth and development.
Finally when we are confronted with the anticipation of a disagreeable experience, we should seek to know the Father’’s will, to seek to know His divine character. We should remember that each time we seek His will, we become a little more like Him in character. Our emotions may shrink at the prospect of going through the experience, and we may want to avoid it, to try to stay in the previous experience, but time and space have removed that experience, and we are faced with the new one. With courage and with the consciousness of our spiritual invincibility, we must move forth to receive those divine values and meanings that are necessary for our continued growth that the situation holds for us. With faith and hope, we must traverse the experience and emerge from it victorious, that is, emerge with the new values and meanings.
But it is the emotions that have highjacked reasoning that drives us off of the highway of truth. It is not the emotions themselves but rather the lack of emotional control. We cannot stop the flow of emotions towards what we are experiencing. Emotions are essential to give the tinge of reality to what we are experiencing, but we need emotional control. We must not allow emotions to determine our attitude and thus our decisions. "When men dare to forsake a life of natural craving for one of adventurous art and uncertain logic, they must expect to suffer the consequent hazards of emotional casualties--conflicts, unhappiness, and uncertainties--at least until the time of their attainment of some degree of intellectual and emotional maturity. Discouragement, worry, and indolence are positive evidence of moral immaturity."
What we want to strive for and obtain is perfected emotional control of Jesus. And we acquire this perfected emotional control by seeking to do the Father’’s will in the very face of the emotional urges to act prematurely or to act retardedly. By seeking the Father’’s will, we are empowered to submit the emotions to our highest level of understanding and wisdom, in short to the Father’’s will. And though the emotions may rage for a time, they will not over power the will dedicated to doing the Father’’s will. And experience has taught us well that no matter how extreme the emotions are in a given situation, they do subside. When they do subside, we want them to have subsided in response to the Father’’s will rather than our own.
Whether an experience be filled with positive anticipation, ambivalence, or negative anticipation, the technique of submitting to the Father’’s will yields those divine values and meanings essential for us to achieve perfection, even as the heavenly Father is perfect. And we should remember that the experiences of adversity yield greater spiritual values and meanings than those pleasant ones, therefore do we develop in an environment of adversity that calls forth those slumbering potentials of growth and development. We should patiently submit to the Father’’s will while we traverse these experiences of adversity that unfolds the potential of divine perfection. Be patient, brothers and sisters.
This concludes today's message on understanding the insight of patience. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
The Insight of Patience
