The Fruit Of Patience Series

A young boy, who had reached the age where having a watch made life worth living, was

bugging his parents to get him one. He was told he would have to wait until he was older. But he

continued to beg for one until his whole family was sick of it. His father finally laid down the law

and told him he would get one later, but for now he was not to even mention the subject again. The

next Sunday, as was the custom, each child in the family read a Bible verse at the dinner table.

When it came to Edward's turn, this was the verse he chose to read-"What I say unto you, I say unto

all: Watch!" For every rule there is someway to get around it, and here was a lad who found a way

to even use the Bible to disobey his parents.

Most of us can identify with him, for we have had an obsession with getting something, and we

could not rest until we got it. This puts our patience to the test, and we realize it is no easy virtue to

achieve-this ability to wait for what we want with a calm and undisturbed spirit in the face of

obstacles and delays. In our age of instant gratification, nobody enjoys waiting for satisfaction, but

God demands that His children learn to discipline their desires, and to persevere and not give up

because they do not reach their goals as soon as they hoped. Shakespeare said, "How poor are they

who have not patience. What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" Waiting and persevering are a

part of God's plan for His people, and those who can't endure this part of it miss out on God's best.

The Bible is constantly urging Christians to look at life long range. Job is the greatest example of

patience because he was able to endure and persevere. He did not give up even though all the

evidence seemed to support that he should. He had the fruit of patience, and held on to see a happy

ending to a very difficult story. All's well that ends well is the message, and all is guaranteed to end

well for those who wait on the Lord, and never give up, but let patience be their guide.

Dr. Wilhelm DeNejs heads the Services for the Blind in Santa Anna, California. He helps blind

people learn that by patient perseverance they can do what they never dreamed possible. He even

helped an electrician who became blind continue his vocation of wiring new houses. He had to learn

how to tell the difference between black and white wires by touch. It was a slow process but he

finally gained enough confidence so he could do the job as fast as a sighted person.

Dr. DeNejs had good reason to believe in the possibility of achieving the seemingly impossible

by patient plodding. He lived in Indonesia when Sukarno came to power, and was determined to kill

all of the royal blood line, and he was in that line. He and his wife had to flee in a canoe at night to

Singapore. They had to get to the Netherlands where their five children were in school. He spoke at

a local Rotary Club, and told of his plan to drive his Tempo to Holland, and then get to the U. S.

where he could aid those who lost their rights. He was not blind but he had lost much of his vision.

An executive in the audience from Shell Oil Company was moved, and gave him the use of his

credit card for his journey.

Fifty miles out of Singapore the road ended, and they had to drive over open fields. They got

stuck and needed to get farmers to pull them out. They came to rivers with no bridges, and he would

have to take the engine out, put it on the roof of the car, and he and his wife would push the car

across the river. Sometimes friendly natives would build a raft for them to float the car across.

They often had to clean the road of debris and underbrush, but the made it to Pakistan, and then

across India. It got so cold in the Khyber Pass going into Afghanistan they had to drain the water

out of the radiator at night, and wait until the water thawed again the next morning to put it back in.

They got through Iran and Iraq, but at the Syrian border they were denied entrance. What a

blow! But as they sat there praying for an answer, a stranger came to the window of the car and

said, "just wait here, tomorrow or the next day, or soon, a sandstorm will come. No one will be able