Being a Patient Patient - Purity 1150

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a cumulus cloud-filled blue sky over green trees and green athletic fields comes to us from Travis Sweet, who shared this pristine scene of simple beauty from an evening's practice session somewhere near his home in Lake Placid, New York, on social media. Back on August 23rd. Well, it's Tuesday, September 19th, and I share Travis's photo because it points to the simple, uh, simply beautiful moments that are available to appreciate in our day-to-day lives, and because it reflects the fact that the back-to-school season is a foregone reality as we are already at the second day of the full second week of school. And although I can't say that it's autumn yet that's officially 2 days away. I can say it certainly feels, uh, like autumn, as the recent 90-degree summer heat wave we had briefly feels like a distant memory, as the relative chilliness of hoodie weather is upon us. I also shared Travis's photo because it represents the restful confines of a regular routine. As much as we may long for excitement in our lives, when we are involuntarily pulled into pulled from your routine to address or to respond to, to respond to emergency situations, to deal with normal things just falling apart as they are known to do, or to derail with the latest episode of continuing trials. It can be a comfort just to return to the normalcy of a regular routine. Over the weekend, my wife Tammy Lynn had gone away for a Christian women's retreat, but I handled the deviation from our normal week— regular weekend routine well by organizing a social activity, bowling at Spare Time in Clifton Park, for some of the members of the Celebrate Freedom growth group. It was a small group of us that met on Saturday, but we had fun even though the bowling proved to be somewhat of a physical challenge. On some of our backs, knees, shoulders, and elbows. Afterward, I went to see a movie where I successfully avoided the temptation to buy the large popcorn and devour it and its free refill. I expertly ended my Saturday by picking up a grocery order after the movie and was well— was all set to spend Sunday with my normal Bible study, church service, and an afternoon of relaxing at home. Although I missed my wife, I managed to keep myself busy and engaged, and engaged, so I wasn't bored and I didn't feel lonely. All was well. However, during the— during this, uh, Tammy Lynn was sending reports of increasing pain and swelling in her right ear and sinuses, leading me to direct her to get medical attention when she returned home from her conference. When she got back on back home on Sunday. However, due to issues with her minivan, she didn't go to the urgent care as I directed her to do, and by the time I found out she didn't make it, urgent care had closed its door for the day. And at the end— and at that time, Tammy Lynn had decided that she would see her regular doctor in the morning, refusing my suggestion to go to the emergency room in the early afternoon. Tammy Lynn is somewhat wary of doctors, can be stubborn as a mule, and has the fortitude of a mama bear, so I respected her wishes to tough it out until Monday morning. So Sunday afternoon I laid down and fell asleep watching videos of Dr. Marcus Warner's Deeper Walk Institute Course 4 to get an early start of preparing myself for the last leg of my training as a prayer minister for deeper walk School of Prayer Ministry, only to wake up to a text message from Tammy Lynn reporting that her pain, swelling, and discomfort had increased and that she would like to go to the emergency room. After all, I was initially angry and bothered by the fact that we didn't go sooner, but jumped in my car and headed north and got Tammy Lynn to Saratoga Hospital's ER around 8 PM. Tammy Lynn was eventually checked in, given a CAT scan, and diagnosed with an infection caused by dental issues, prescribed antibiotics and pain meds, and released around 3 in the morning. It was a long, slow night, and it caused me to call out of work yesterday because of physical exhaustion. I also unchar— uncharacteristically failed to do my regular routine of my daily spiritual practices of exercise, prayer, Bible study, meditation, blogging, and podcasting. But some things are more important than our normal routine, or ministry work for that matter. As much as we try to give glory to the Lord by worshiping him and doing good works to give him glory, our first responsibility as Christians, or really as humans, is to be good stewards of what God has provided us with: our bodies, our possessions, and our families. So although I was mightily triggered, mad at Tammy Lynn for not doing what I said, and at myself for not meeting Tammy Lynn and taking her to get medical attention as soon as she got back from her trip, I got over my anger and, and I got over my anger to get my wife the help she needed to get. Rather than complaining about it, I just took Tammy Lynn where she needed to be and didn't, as asked exasperate her condition by voicing anything negative. She needed help, not 'I told you so's or a husband that was an obnoxious jerk to the staff that was providing her with the help she needed. Instead, since Tammy Lynn was a patient, I practiced being patient myself. And even though the pace on a Sunday night in Saratoga's ER is snail-like in providing care, I waited it out like a champ. And continued caring for Tammy Lynn yesterday by getting her prescriptions and some groceries for the house. When a crisis hits, we can panic and become impatient and push for preferential or expedited treatment, but sometimes even our most demanding efforts won't change anything other than causing more stress and discord to an already difficult situation. So I recommend that we represent God's kingdom by being patient patients. Uh, when we need help rather than being the squeaky annoying wheel that needs to be greased. Remaining calm and being at peace in the midst of difficult situations is a sign of our maturity, and for that I have to give all the glory to God because the progress I've made in these areas is a direct result of my decision to be more like Jesus. Jesus didn't demand his rights. He He suffered patiently and trusted the Lord to do His will in his life. Even if it meant he would suffer, Jesus knew that God was in control and that He would move things along at His sovereign pace to accomplish what needed to be done for everyone's good. And so I remained calm and patient for Tammy Lynn's good, the hospital staff's good, and in turn it was for my good as well. I didn't lose my cool. I didn't get upset, and eventually Tammy Lynn got the help she needed. So appreciate your regular routine. The alternatives, uh, could be a medical emergency or other calamities that could make your life exciting. But if those deviations for— from your normal life come, and they will, try to remember Jesus's example and be patient in your sufferings. And, and by considering others to be more important than yourself. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on anger, and, uh, today's verse is Proverbs 19:11, uh, and the word of God says in the New Living Translation, sensible people control their temper. They earn respect by overlooking wrongs. Today's verse falls under the third point of our Counseling Reference Guide's reference— resource section on anger and hot temper. Love covers a multitude of sins and overlooks many offenses. Today's verse is the fourth of five passages of Scripture that our resource provides to demonstrate love's power over anger. And rather than presenting them all at once, we are doing them one at a time, one day at a time. Today's verse highlights the second clause of our resource search point by overlooking wrongs as a possible way to earn the respect of others for our sensible self-control. On Sunday evening, I chose to overlook the offense of having to wait in Saratoga's emergency room for approximately 7 hours and decided to do the sensible thing and control my anger. Getting upset would not have changed things in a positive direction. It was extremely sensible to control my temper in that situation, and I would like to point out how I did it to possibly help those who struggle with anger. When I was in that emergency room, I didn't look at the clock. I didn't ask myself, "When will they do something?" I didn't wonder, "When will we leave?" I didn't ask myself, "What is wrong with this place?" or "Where is the doctor?" or "Where are the test results?" or "What the hell is going on?" Nope. You don't even want to think those things because that is not controlling your temper. That is lighting a fuse to a bomb that will eventually explode into an angry outburst. Instead, I made the best of the situation. I remained quiet verbally and mentally. I wanted my wife to have peace and did nothing to disturb her. So as for my thoughts and attention, I decided to put them someplace other than the crisis at hand. I released control and trusted the hospital staff— I trusted that the hospital staff would provide Tammy Lynn with the care she needed as soon as possible, as soon as they could. It was Sunday night and there was a TV in the room, so Tammy Lynn So since Tammy Lynn didn't care what was on and was trying to rest, I silently watched Sunday night's football game between the Patriots and the Dolphins and read through some emails on my phone. I put my attention on the game and the Christian articles that I read. As the hours moved past midnight, I just shut my eyes and tried to rest too. Instead of occupying my mind with upsetting thoughts or demanding immediate treatment and release, I relaxed. And because I chose this sensible path, my anger, my temper was baseline, and the evening was peaceful. So be sensible and redirect your thoughts and behaviors when you are tempted to give into your quote-unquote righteous anger. Although our needs being met may be an emergency to us, we should consider others as more important than ourselves. Do what we can to maintain peace and redirect our thoughts, attention, and actions into productive things rather than being a nuisance. It is sensible to control our tempers and to overlook our personal offenses. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from— well, almost always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit as we continue sharing from chapter 25, which is The Spirit Assisting. And, um, today's topic is Help Amidst Suffering. And so if you want to read how the Holy Spirit can help you in the midst of suffering, uh, go to m.tforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship where we follow the teachings of Jesus and try to be more like Jesus in the way we live our lives in all the areas of our life, even in waiting, waiting on people. And so I hope my example of patiently waiting through the emergency to get medical care for Tammy Lynn inspires people to be more patient. The only pathway to peace is through Jesus Christ, and when we walk in the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit grow in our lives, and one of those fruit is self-control and another is patience. And, um, so that's why we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship, because we've discovered that all the answers to life questions and problems and concerns are found in the Word of God, and we're given an example of how to live through through the person of Jesus Christ. And so we, we do the blog to encourage people on their faith, that you try to live as a Christian every, every single day of your life. And we provide on the podcast and the YouTube channel, we provide our discipleship teachings that we did back in 2021 for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Those teachings were all based on the word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson of Freedom in Christ Ministries, and we found them to be transformative for our lives. And, um, so we provide those, um, you know, on the podcast, and, uh, we can provide the materials to those classes, uh, if you reach out to me at mtforchrist@gmail.com, um, because we have to learn how to live this life of of Christian faith and, you know, be committed to follow it no matter what we encounter. And even though emergencies can take us out of our normal routine, we don't have to lose our cool about it, and we can try to represent the kingdom through our conduct by being people of peace. So that's what I managed to do. Very happy to get back to normal routine of going to work today, though. Nobody likes to deal with emergencies. Tammy Lynn will be at home continuing to take her medication. She's going to see her dentist today, and I'm trusting that she'll get the care she provides while I'm at work. And I'm praying for the Lord to give her complete healing from this condition as soon as possible, Lord. Um, you know, prayerfully, by before our Newsboys concert on Sunday. Um, as I know Tammy Lynn was looking forward to that. So that's what we're praying for today. We're praying for my wife's healing. And well, we should pray some more too. Um, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you've done for us. You've never left us or forsaken us, even in times of trials and sufferings, that you've always been our constant companion. And since we've started the walk with you, we really know your presence and your strength and your guidance that you have for us. Lord, we pray for you to go before us today because we don't know what's going to happen, but you do, and you can guide us in the right way to go. So we pray for the anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that they would be blessed and encouraged and their walk by you, Lord, and that you come alongside them and their prayer requests, and, um, that you would answer ours, um, first and foremost for the healing of my wife and for the care of my family in general, um, situations that are out there that are unresolved. And, uh, we pray for things to be blessed by you, Lord, to, to move us in a good way. And Lord, we just pray for you to be with us today. We need you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and we want you to direct us to walk in the ways that you would have us walk, because all we want to do is do your will on earth and represent your kingdom and to, you know, to do what you would have us do. So Lord, we pray, we praise you, we love you, we thank you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.