Galations 5 says that the fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
One of my favorite aspects of Ernie’s character is his patience. We’re roommates and I know that I do tons of things that should make him much more frustrated than he ever seems to become.
-->I forget my clothes on his bed…
he’s told me a dozen times not to do this.
-->I leave my laundry on the floor by the bottom of the ladder.
I know this annoys him.
-->I shout in my sleep, not talk…Ernie has described it as loud, existential shouting in the 3rd person.
--I stayed up all night last week but never heard anything.
Ernie graduated from Eastern Michigan in 2005 with a degree in manufacturing engineering. Before this he earned two associates degrees in Robotics and Pneumatics. His Dad has sweet old motorcycles and tons of guns. He now works at Rosetta Stone which is a language learning software company based here in Harrisonburg.
With that said; Ernie has not only a wealth of knowledge but also a breadth of knowledge and is constantly willing to teach, explain and share the things he’s stowed away in his brain. I’m a very inquisitive person and I like to think that I know at least a little bit about most subjects but when compared to Ernie I am severely lacking. Ernie’s patience with me in regards to my near-constant questioning about engines, guns, trucks and most importantly God is just plain unfathomable to me.
I’ve seen so much of God’s character displayed in regards to patience with Ernie in the last few years. I’ve talked about the day-to-day things I do that annoy Ernie and I’ve talked about the constant questioning that I hit him with but something that I see that reminds me entirely of God’s character is his long term patience.
As we read through scripture we are constantly confronted with a God who is enduringly faithful, who is bent on redemption and reconciliation. Another aspect of this is how God WANTS us to constantly petition him with our requests through prayer.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18(NIV)
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Other scripture says that we are to flood God with our prayers and requests! Other scripture even says that he wants us to PESTER Him with our requests! How amazing is that?! If that is true, if we believed that to be true we wouldn’t treat prayer the way we do. We wouldn’t be afraid that we are going to out-request God, that somehow through our prayers he is going to tell us we’ve reached our “bless-0-meter” capacity.
I asked Ernie about what his favorite part of his relationship with Hannah was a couple months ago and he said a few things that blew my mind but the one that stuck with me the clearest was this…
Prayer. With Hannah.. Best part of their relationship…
There is something amazingly powerful about placing ourselves before the Lord adoring the creator-God who has blessed us with everything we can see and experience, Confessing where we’ve fallen short, Thanking God for his faithfulness, mercy and continued Grace and patience with us and lastly for our Supplication. Supplication is where we ask things of God, whether it’s healing or for spiritual growth or even for things.
God wants us to ask of him.
Here’s a simple and beautiful prayer guide.
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication
May we come to see Christ as beautiful, attractive and most importantly available.
May we flood our creator with prayers.
May He give us the strength and courage to admit that we are broken and scared before our creator.
May insecurities never steal from us our ability to be alone with our creator in prayer.
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