Writers of faith, produce with patience

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Daily Snippets from the Word

But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
(Luke 8:15) 

The Opine Publishing logo has a sower of seed, scattering it across a field. This logo image relates to Luke 8, where Jesus interprets the parable of the sower. The seed is the Word of God, God is the Sower, and the different earth-types, from hard ground to ready ground, represent the heart of the recipient of the Word. 

What strikes me today as I reread this one part of the full parable is that fruit, or production, of faith requires patience to be brought forth. 

"The root of impatience is the erroneous belief that we are the masters of our fates." Source: Path of the Soul 4

The Hebrew word for patience is savlanut, which also means "tolerance." The same root gives rise to words that means "suffer" (sevel) and "burdens" (sivlot). We learn from this that patience is not a necessarily a pleasant experience. We should expect patience to be the hard work we usually find it to be. That may mean enduring and tolerating, and the experience may even mean bearing a burden.

New Testament/Greek: "Thayer’s Greek Lexicon says that 'hupomone' is the characteristic of a man who is 'unswerved' from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings."

Is our writing "in the will of God"? Is its time for fruitfulness full, in us, or are we prematurely trying to produce it? We need, daily, to pray, "Thy will be done."

It strikes me now more than ever that people of faith have this supreme calling of making sure that we are prayerful, seeking, and obedient daily. Maybe our writing projects "make sense" to us. Yet, if we pause at the beginning to seek God's guidance, are we at peace to continue on our topic or our plan? We will know the answer each time that we seek His guidance, seeking Him first, every day. IF we are not living this way, then our aims are in vain. However, it is not too late to resume this way of doing, or to start. 

With unswerving, deliberate, faith and piety, we are determined to follow on, to know the Lord and to receive the heavenly blessing of life everlasting with the One who is Wonderful, King of kings, and Lord of your life and mine.

Jean Purcell

Twitter @opinaripeople

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