TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (TUESDAY 14TH July 2026)
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 195TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF STRATEGIC VICTORIES!
Yesterday we shared some truths about patience. Today we will be looking at one major thing that hurts or harm our patience, either with God or with men who needs it to be forgiven or become all that God wants them to be.
Yes, there are people who will never enter their destiny until we are patient with them. There are teenagers that might end up becoming criminals if we are not patient with them. There are young men and women who will need our patience to break away from ungodly things like destructive habits and all that.
Patience can function as the fertility of greatness if it is practiced in God’s design. It can function as a breeding ground for righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost if we allow it to have its way. It can be a catalyst of salvation and eternal life.
For instance, if God is not patient towards us, we would be lost. The story of the prodigal son was told partly to show us how the patience of God with mankind saves sinful souls from sudden destruction or the consequences of their sins. It is an aspect of God’s mercy. The Bible says:
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9 NKJV
The word patience is also the same as the word longsuffering. Another word for patience is the word forbearance. All these words were used to describe how God’s patience with us is the reason why we are saved and are being saved, and the reason why we shall be saved.
IT IS THE REASON YOU COMMIT A SIN AND EXPECT GOD TO STRIKE YOU DEAD, ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT NOTHING BAD HAS HAPPENED.
God is not permitting or approving your sin, He is just patience towards you. The Bible teaches that His patience with us should lead us to repentance and not strengthen our hands in wickedness. The Bible teaches that bad things will eventually happen to people who do not make use of God’s patience to repent of their sin.
So, God’s patience with man saves, heals, restores and sanctifies.
His patience is the reason His judgment on our sins and other wicked things we do is delayed. It is the reason the wicked do not die even when you pray against them, believing that God has heard you and that they will drop dead any moment. We forget that God has no delight in the dead of a sinner because a soul will be lost forever.
God’s patience towards us is the reason sentence against wicked works is not speedily executed. It is also the reason many now think sin is no longer sin in God’s sight because they have done things that would have killed them in other dispensations and are still alive. Sadly, it has given them a distorted view of God’s grace. They now see it as a permission to sin instead of a purging from sin.
But the patience of our devotional texts is the patience to practice in tribulation; what we saw yesterday as the patience of job. Our devotional text says, we should let that kind of patience, and maybe any other one, have its perfect work, that we may be complete, lacking nothing. That tells us the important power of patience in the life of a believer in Christ.
IT ACCOMPLISHES A PERFECT WORK IN OUR LIVES THAT WILL NOT COME IN ANY OTHER WAY.
Walking with God requires a lot of patience because walking with God needs patience to do its perfect works so that we can come into things we would not have come into if we had not walked with the LORD in patience. The powerful works of patience are character development and spiritual maturity, two things that many believers in the present Church do not have.
That is why the word “wait” is one of the most important words attached to lasting moves of God and amazing blessings in the scriptures. David, a man who used patience with God to ascend the throne, admonished us saying,
“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”
“Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret — it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.”
“For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalms 37:7-11 NKJV
Sadly, when one become famished or malnourished in the things of God he or she can no longer accept an admonition to be patient or to wait. They may accept it in church but throw it away at home. This has become the lot of many today!!
One of the major things that destroys a believer’s patience is lack of proper spiritual food.
If you are not fed spiritually with the doctrine of Christ, you will never have patience in tribulation or make proper use of God’s patience with you. You will just become impatient with God. Most destructive decisions in the life of the believer are taken in a season of impatience with God.
THE HASTE OF A FOOL IS STILL THE SLOWEST THING IN THE WORLD. THAT IS WHAT MAKES THAT SEASON A TERRIBLE ONE.
If you are therefore, in a church that may seem to be doing you good, but you are always plagued with the spirit of impatience, God is saying to you that they are not doing you good as you think. It is a sign that you are not being fed. That is why you are getting fed up with GOD.
You need to move to where you will be properly fed to come into the stature that will bring forth the manifestations of GOD in your life.
Now, when we say being patient with the LORD, we are not referring to suffering delay. Sometimes Satan places people in a delay system and use the patience-with-God phrase to keep them comfortable under the attack. We must be able to differentiate between delay and the need to be patient with the LORD.
Delay is demonic and chokes a man’s spirit, but patience refreshes the spirit. It gives you that sense of assurance that God is working on your behalf, behind the scenes. That is why you find faith and patience moving together.
The Bible says through faith and patience our father Abraham obtained the promise.
When God tells you to be patient, His word will impart faith into you and keep you strong and hopeful. But when Satan is the one delaying you, maybe using any spiritual person to deceive you by preaching patience to you, there would be none of these works of the Spirit in the whole thing.
It is my prayer that the LORD will use these few thoughts He has shared with us to continue to build us up and give us an inheritance among they that are sanctified. Amen
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:30-31 NKJV
