Abide – Patience
Welcome, one and all, to Abide, a time where we all get to practice pulling away and spending time with God. So, wherever you've been able to pull away, in your car, on your commute, in your room, let's all shut the door. And allow me to start this prayer time with a quote by Thomas Merton:
“My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
Let's all get settled in our bodies, in our seats, and in our spaces. Beginning to quiet the mind, and you can also quiet the face, the muscles of the face. Quiet the heart. Roll the shoulders back and release any tension in that center body. Quiet your center body, relaxing the hips down through the legs and to your feet.
I wonder if you picked up in the quote the intimacy, the authenticity, of the writer to God. The trust. Noticing a long-standing relationship between the writer and Saviour. And so, as we enter into this prayer time with this quote from Thomas Merton, hearing his doubts, hearing his inability to follow, feeling lost. I just want to invite you today to bring a sincerity of heart to God. So if you are at a place right now that's full of doubt, or maybe a place full of fear, or fatigue. Maybe worry or sorrow. Maybe a lightness of freedom or a joy. Wherever you're at, allow that to be the doorway into God. So if there is deep sorrow, there's a doorway there that you can open and sit with God. If there's chaos and disorder, there's a door there that you can open. Sit with Jesus. So I'm gonna give you a moment just to become more aware of where your heart is at. A little sincerity goes a long way with God. So just become aware of your interior life, and to be honest with God about that and allow that to be a doorway to sit and be.
Beautiful. So as we all get settled into our space with Jesus, opening the doorway to wherever we are at, knowing that Jesus meets us there. Let's take a few deep breaths together, so inhale 1 and exhale. Inhale 2, and exhale. And inhale 3, and exhale. As the body quiets and settles, just become more aware of the presence of God surrounding you, whether you are in a room that you can look at different furniture pieces, whether you can look out a window. Just become aware of the action, the love, the presence of Jesus and how he's presencing himself to you in these moments of quiet.
Our gratitude practice today, we're all going to begin to ponder how we even got here to this day, to this hour, to even come to these, these kinds of contemplative prayer. Who are the people that have guided your faith journey? What are the situations and circumstances that have deepened you to be drawn to these times of prayer with God and of connection with Jesus?
So just start to begin to find this thread that is, come from your beginnings, to present time. And how you've been brought by God into this space of intimacy and desire for connection. So just take these moments now in gratitude to see how God has brought you with his people, with the conditions of your life, to this space today in your spirit.
Wonderful. You know, as we all ponder together, we couldn't have even come up with these stories if we tried. How did we meet these different people and how do we get to live in these different spaces to get us to this point? Our God and Saviour is a mysterious God. And yet, we're so grateful that He's continuing to draw us on this path of intimacy, contemplation in his word, and in prayer. Thank you, God.
Today in our sacred space with Jesus, we're going to look at the virtue of patience. And this virtue, I find is just talked about widely on a daily basis for us all. We all need patience in different parts of our life and I'm going to read a bit from Karen Swallow Prior in her reflections on patience.
She begins: “In the context of everyday life, we think of patience in more mundane terms. Being patient is what we aim for or fail at, when sitting in traffic, standing in line, or waiting for a table. But the virtue of patience entails much more than merely waiting. The essence of patience is the willingness to endure suffering.”
She continues: “That suffering is the meaning of the root word for patience. It’s made clear by the fact that we also use the word ‘patient’ to refer to someone under medical care. The patient is someone suffering from an ailment, not merely waiting. ‘Patient’ shares the same root as the word ‘passion’, which also means suffering. Someone who has a passion, a passion for music, a passion for soccer, a passion for a person, suffers on the behalf of that love. When we speak in the church about the passion of Christ, it literally refers to the suffering of Christ on the cross on our behalf.”
We are in this season of Lent where we are walking with Jesus in his passion, in his patience, in his trust of God. And he is suffering. And as we learned, in our last time together around diligence, we were able to walk with him through those stations.
Karen continues to write: “Suffering is not something we do well in the modern age. It's certainly not something I do well. This is why patience is, as they say, a virtue. Since suffering is inevitable in this world, it might seem silly to consider the willingness to endure it as a virtue. But while suffering is inevitable, we can choose how we bear it. Patient character has everything to do with our will as opposed to our circumstances. Patience is not inaction, as the Bible says in James 5:11, patience is not passivity, but perseverance.”
So I hope you're getting a sense with me of what this word patience means and what this virtue entails. It's more than just waiting. There's suffering. There's a perseverance. There's a growing of our character and how we will choose to respond to life and the circumstances we find ourselves in.
We're going to move into the Scriptures now. And there are so many examples, I think every person in Scripture shows us patience. So today, though, we're going to sit with Hannah in the book of 1 Samuel. And I'm going to read first Samuel 1:1-20, and then I'll continue with verses 24-28.
There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. Because the LORD had closed Hannah's womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on years, year after year. And whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hanna, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”
Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the LORD's House. And in her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”
“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
She said, “May your servant find favour in your eyes.” And then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
Early the next morning they arose and worshipped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”
Continuing in verse 24: After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshipped the LORD there.
Allow this story, the scenes, the people, to just rest with you in Christ's presence now.
You'll notice in verse 3 and verse 7, it says “year after year”. Year after year, they go up to worship. Year after year, Hannah is longing for a child. And so this patience, this suffering, this waiting, Hannah is familiar with. And so I just give us a moment now with God to think of something that you are waiting for, that you have been patient for. And maybe it hasn't been years or maybe it has been. Maybe it's been months. Maybe it's been weeks. But it's something that's always on your mind and your heart, and it's a sort of suffering. And it's meant to be offered to God and spoken of and shared about. And so spend some time now just opening up that space where you are suffering, where you continue to be patient.
We continue in the story here at verse 10: “In her deep anguish, Hanna prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying Lord Almighty, if, if. You will only. Look on your servant's misery. And Remember Me. And not forget your servant, but give her a son. Then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life”.
So I want you to notice with me just Hannah's sincerity. The weeping. The prayer. The desire. But I also want you to notice that this desire she has is not just for herself, but it shifts to “I longed for this child, this child I will give back to you.” So there’s a sense where you see that Hannah is centered beyond herself.
Karen Swallow Prior writes: “The bearing of suffering allows us to recognize the suffering of others.” So in Hannah's suffering, she's able to open up.
Karen also writes: “The decentering of self that is necessary to achieving the habit of patience.” So we sense here that Hannah, there has to be a decentering of self where this isn't, this prayer isn't just about her, but it's about God and Hannah's desire to be a part of the big God story.
And so I'm wondering if you could take a moment to look at what you're longing for and what you're being patient around and sense it in the bigger story where you decenter from just yourself and open up to the greater, open up to even the suffering of others around you in this same regard.
Continuing with verse 16: “Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
She said, “May your servant find favour in your eyes.”
We see here that Hannah's able to speak with Eli and Eli is able to interact with her in her grief and in her prayer. So I invite us all now to just look over the spaces where, in our life, we need patience. And look around, where might God be offering aid or help? Or someone to listen? Or someone to pray with you? Or someone to journey with you that also is waiting? Begin to notice those helpers now.
Verse 18: Then she went away and she ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. Early the next morning they arose and worshipped before the LORD,\ and then went back to their home at Ramah.
Notice how Hannah weeps and prays, calls out to God, connects with Eli. She lays it all down, and then she gets up and she eats, and she goes and worships. She waits, but waits in an active life-giving way. And so, may the Spirit guide us each now in some quiet around how we can continue to walk while we wait. How we continue to care for ourselves and eat and go about our days. How we can continue to worship you God, even while we wait. How we can continue to trust you, God, while we wait. And take some advice here from Hannah and how she chose to live in the waiting.
Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”
After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshipped the LORD there. (1 Samuel 1:19b-20, 24-28)
You'll notice in these verses that the waiting is over. Samuel has been born and weaned. And now Hannah has more work to do as she offers her son over and trust[s] God with this gift she was given and gives back. So let's just take time to notice how what we wait for, what we trust God in. It's not only for ourselves, but for, for others to be offered. You might notice this cycle in your own life where you wait for something and you receive it, and then you offer it, and then there's always something new to wait for, and walk with God in, and then offer it. So just spend time now just thinking about that cycle in your life of being patient for something, walking through it with God, offering it to the greater good.
O Lord, as we begin to conclude this time of prayer together. We need your strength. We need the gift of patience. We need this virtue to continue to be cultivated in us. We see your patient trust as you walk the journey toward the cross right now. We see the trust and the patience of Hannah and her suffering. So help us. Help us in the little things when we're waiting in line or we're impatient in traffic to know that we're not alone. Look around, other people are waiting too. And this might be a great time to offer compassion to those around us. And as we wait, God, can [we] use this time as a doorway to grow in our intimacy with you as we call out to you? As we seek others for help, as we broaden in the body of Christ together in our waitings. And Lord help us to trust you. Trust you with our lives. Trust you with our sufferings and where we're waiting on you. Because our lives aren't even our own, they're yours. And so, Lord, go with us now into the rest of our day to see how this virtue of patience can continue to be practiced.
We love you, Lord.
Go in peace, my friends.
