Today's Scripture James 1:4

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing

How easy it is to become impatient in the maturing process! We want to hurry things along to the harvest, but growth requires time and patience.

We have a new year beginning in a few days. Maybe you succeeded at all of your yearly resolutions?  Maybe the year has been challenging and difficult?

God has a plan for carrying you to completion. He sends the sunshine and pours out the rain. He lifts up and prunes to produce much fruit. He plans to make every barren area abundant. His intention is not to harm, but to prosper.

Do not resent the growth process as some sort of intrusion in your life. Do not try to cut it off prematurely. Allow patience to do its work in you until you fully bloom and produce the fruit that God seeks.

Endure the season of sorrow because joy comes in the morning. Trust through the time of need because the righteous have never been forsaken; His children do not beg for bread. In the middle of the tempest, be assured that God rides on the wings of the storm. In the day of battle, find defense in our Shield and Defender. Even in the fiery furnace, He walks beside us through the flames.

Trust Him as you allow patience to perform its refining work and watch what God does for you in the new year.