Patience does not come naturally to me; I like to see results. Are you like me, do you love that sense of accomplishment when you get to the end of a to-do-list? Many years ago, I took the Strengthsfinder test, and my second strength was achiever. Part of the book’s description of an achiever is as follows: Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day, you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. No wonder I struggle with patience! Achiever is a strength, it is the motivation I need each day to stay focussed and disciplined, yet some days it leaves you feeling deflated.
God is teaching us that business doesn’t automatically equal ‘achievement’. Being busy can make us feel important, influential, and fulfilled, but is it fruitful? We believe God has a plan for each of our lives. He chose us for fruitfulness (John 15:16) and abundant fruitfulness too (Matthew 13:23). Yet being busy doesn’t automatically produce fruit. In fact, nothing we can ‘achieve’ will produce fruit, it is ‘only God, who makes things grow’. We may get to plant and water seed, but we are just workers in God’s field (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).
Fruitfulness is completely in God’s hands and in His timing. What He requires of us is not business but total trust and obedience. I’ve discovered it isn’t difficult to create a to-do-list to complete each day, but if we want fruitfulness, we must seek Him for His to-do-list. And that looks very different to mine and is a lot harder to achieve. God is more interested in who we are, than what we do. 2 Peter gives us a God to-do-list that promises Kingdom productivity: ‘make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love’ (2 Peter 1:5-7). Peter goes on to say that if we work on His to-do-list and each quality increases, they will keep us from being ‘ineffective and unproductive’!
Over Christmas I read a brilliant short book ‘Custom and Command’ sent to me by a friend of my Dad’s. The author Stan Firth searches the Bible to test a call they receive from God to come out of formal ministry into what he describes as an “unstructured church lifestyle”. He writes “the style of Christian Service adopted by those whose only church is a “house of living stones” is not nearly so ‘reportable’ as the usual church activities – certainly not in the short term at any rate”.
We’re only a few months into our new chapter, and if I’m honest I wanted and probably expected more to ‘report’. But I recognise my impatience, and the temptation to create my own to-do-list to fulfil my need for daily achievement. But we don’t want to ‘feel good’, we want to daily discern and obey God’s to-do-list. We want to join God on His mission and trust God to bring the fruit in His time. So, we need patience, and thank goodness that’s a fruit of His Spirit. P.S. I’d highly recommend reading Stan Firth’s book ‘Custom and Command’. Written in 1996, it is ahead of its time. His second book ‘The Remarkable Replacement Army’ is based on a prophecy Stan received and gives practical advice on how we can be the effective 21st Century Church drawing lessons from his studies of the Norwegian Resistance Army! To download the books for free CLICK HERE.
Featured photo by Ben White on Unsplash
"Live to Serve" 