Patience as Faith - March 2024 [ENG]
- Rodrigo y Katelyn
- 28 mar 2024
- 5 Min. de lectura
First, a word of encouragement
The Apostle James started his letter saying that the testing of our faith produces patience. Some time ago I thought I understood the relationship between them. In fact, I wrote an article for a Christian magazine about it. One thing is knowing it, another thing is experience it.

The word in Greek for patience has two meanings. The first one is related to longsuffering, to endure a hard time. This is the first thing we think about patience. But, the second one is related to resisting, something firm and lasting. Our patience is directly related to the understanding we have about the person and nature of God. The capability of waiting, and not only waiting, but also doing it in a way that pleases God, can only be rooted in knowing that He is “good and his mercies endure forever”; that His “plans to prosper you and not to harm you”; that His will is “good, pleasing and perfect”, that He is “not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind...¨
Our times of waiting are usually not pleasant because we have lost the sense of the waiting. We wait with the feeling that is a waste of time. For centuries Christians practiced a spiritual discipline called “waiting for the Lord” or “waiting on the Lord”. In our fast and busy world, we shoot a text to heaven, and expect that when God reads it He will answer it. Meanwhile, I will move on with my life, making my decisions, in our view, to gain some time. I think one of the purposes of waiting is to bring to the surface all the intentions of our heart and to measure them in comparison with the heart of Jesus. Let me give a few examples.
First, waiting allows us to realize that we usually have ideas to make the promises of the Lord happen. Human ideas, incompatible with the eternal promises of the Lord. God promised a son to Abraham. The promise took 25 years to come. Sarah and Abraham decided to give God “a little help” to solve the situation of the delayed promise. The father of faith seemed to doubt in the waiting and he begot a son that would later persecute and be in constant conflict with the real promise of God, God´s original plan for Abraham´s descendance.
Second, in the waiting we become aware of our idols and the false images of God that we have built. The people of Israel said: Moses took too long on the mountain. They found a solution to the waiting. They built an idol and told themselves: ¨this is your god that took you out of the land of Egypt¨. The waiting makes our flesh rise up idols, excuses, and gives us reasons to keep them, guard them and even protect them. The answer of Aaron to Moses´ questioning seems like the excuse of a child: ¨I took the gold, put it in the fire and out came this calf¨. Basically , it is like saying ¨l put flour and eggs in a bowl and out of nowhere a chocolate cake appeared¨.
Third, waiting reveals our expectations towards God. Israel was waiting for a Messiah, an earthly Messiah. One who would liberate them from the slavery of Rome, but they failed to see that they were slaves of a worse and more ruthless master, their sin. Their expectation was a Messiah that would come on a white horse, wearing polished armor, and crushing who they thought to be their enemy. It never made sense to them that a carpenter who called people to love their enemy, or paying to Cesar what was owed to Cesar, or to give their tunic and their cloak as well, or to forgive the ones who cursed you, could ever be their long awaited Messiah. They yelled ¨Crucify him¨! Because the Messiah couldn’t be imprisoned by the Romans; and if He really was the Son of God, why doesn’t He come down of that cross?
Lastly, there were a few that waited in the upperroom. With fear, behind closed doors, but with all their hearts. Trusting that they were given a promise, that in not much time they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. Confident in who promised it, they were “waiting for the promise of the Father”. In time, they received what they waited for. Without shortcuts, nor idols, without human expectations, but with the process completed. With Jesus at the center of it and with the impact that only a divine idea could have.
An update on what we have been doing lately
Two weeks ago, we had our visa appointment at the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City. God gave us a lot of grace with the people that we came into contact with and we were able to complete the process. Now, we are only trusting to be notified about the resolution and a date to pick up our passports with the visas. This process can take up to 90 days. We are praying that it will be shorter so that we can move to Spain in the next few weeks.
During this time, we have been developing projects from Guatemala in the most efficient way possible. We have had meetings with our contacts in Italy to set the details for the next steps. We have a group of pastors that we meet with through Zoom. We spoke about the project and at the end of the meeting they agreed to meet us in person and spend some time with us to speak about the vision of the project and all the details. Dates are still to be confirmed because of our visas and the availability of our interpreters.
This month we have been teaching the Bible Study at our local church. The topic was the book of Psalms. During these sessions we taught the book in its context, the correct interpretation of this book and we navigated the different types of psalms and their practical application to the Christian life nowadays. The beauty of this book and what it teaches us about prayer and worship has brought encouragement to our lives. We finished it with a night of worship and prayer, where the Lord was with us and we enjoyed His presence.
We are preparing an online Harvesters Training with the group of pastors we are working with in Madrid. This will be held the second week of April. Due to the delays of our visas, we will be meeting online instead of meeting in person. This will be a 9 hour training focused on Discipleship and Disciple Making. Although we would have loved to make it in person, we are taking advantage of the tools we have to keep the work moving.
Some Prayer Requests
First, that we will hear soon from the Spanish Embassy with our visas so that we can arrange travel to Spain. We also ask for your prayers so we can find an apartment/house quickly once we get to Almería. Another of the needs we have is to buy a car once we get to Spain. The market is more expensive than the market in Guatemala, that is why even when we sold our cars we still don’t have enough to buy one in Spain. Lastly, we ask you to pray for the trainings planned for the second week of April; we ask for the presence of the Lord in the training sessions and the work of the Holy Spirit in every Pastor in their work and ministry.
We are confident that the One who called us is faithful, and He will know how to meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing in and through us!
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