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| | The Christian Millionaire Mindset Mentors Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Patience--Fruit that is never out of season | Views: 1278 | | Oct 03, 2006 4:48 pm | | Patience--Fruit that is never out of season | # | 
Jack Weinzierl | | Thank God it's Monday Call Notes--
Monday, October 2, 2006
While Most People live for the weekend, we anticipate and look forward to Mondays in our businesses and also so we can be "the church" on Monday to reach people with the Good News.
Let’s open this call properly in prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you each individual on this growing team. Thank you for all of your provision, guidance and the hedge of protection that you place around us. We thank you as your healing hands are all over Don Goldstein.
Thank you for the patience, discernment and wisdom in our businesses and in our lives. We thank you for supernatural favor in our finances and divine appointments. We are blessed to be a blessing, In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.
We probably have about 40 seats left for the MMC next month. Let’s fill them up over the next two weeks.
Although we approach our businesses and our lives with a sense of urgency, I want to share this morning regarding a subject that many of us struggle with and that is patience—that is fruit that is never out of season. Much of this information has come from John Maxwell and the Bible of course.
In the Bible Paul says that . . . "God’s spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient," -- I’m going to talk about patience this morning-- "kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled." Galatians 5:22
Patience is not my greatest strength. How many of you have a problem with patience? Whoa! If you don’t you may need to check your pulse.
Patience means long wrath and slow anger.
This basically means that we are to handle our anger slowly. Remember when God spoke to Moses and he said to him, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious. God is slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness"? He was literally talking about patience here. Our God is slow to anger. Well, you know the fruit of the spirit are all attributes of God. Here we see the attribute of God’s patience -- he’s slow to anger. A lot of times people think that anger is wrong. Really it’s not a sin. It’s when it’s uncontrolled. Paul tells us to not let the sun go down on our anger or our wrath.
What we’re going to talk about is the root of impatience, which is anger. So we don’t want to just talk about patience this morning; we want to go right down to the foundation, which is uncontrolled anger. Remember patience is slow anger.
I always try to be very practical and applicable and relevant, so let me give you the seven keys to managing your anger.
Seven keys to managing your anger:
1. Resolve to manage it.
"It is better to be slow-tempered than famous; it is better to have self-control than to control an army." Proverbs 16:32(LB)
The first thing I want you to know today is that anger can be managed. In fact, anger for a right cause, managed directly, is a tremendous attribute. Don’t you get angry about injustice and sin? And aren’t there times when it literally motivates you or compels you to do something about it?
Now, here’s where the problem comes in. Many people will state, "I just can’t help myself. You don’t understand, I mean, when it happens, it happens, and I’m a volcano. I mean, I blow up." Sure you can manage it. Sure you can help yourself. Sure you can control it.
John Maxwell shared about a pastor he knows said that a member of his church said, "Well, my anger is bad. It’s not controllable. It’s probably the cross I must bear." Now, the pastor said, "No, it’s not the cross you must bear; it’s the cross your wife has to bear. It’s your sin; it’s her cross."
2. Realize the cost.
Anger is one letter away from danger.
"A hot-tempered man starts fights and gets into all kinds of trouble."
Proverbs 29:22
You never get to the top when you keep blowing your top. When you lose your temper, you lose.
The Bible is very specific about the damage done by uncontrolled anger.
It destroys relationships.
Proverbs 15:18, "Hot tempers cause arguments." Proverbs 14:29, "Anger causes mistakes." Proverbs 14:17, "People with hot tempers do foolish things." Proverbs 11:29, "The fool who provokes his family to anger and resentment will finally have nothing worthwhile left." Maybe I ought to read that one verse one more time. "The fool who provokes his family to anger and resentment will finally have nothing worthwhile left. " Resentment is nothing more than stuffed anger. In fact, there are two things that society has a problem with: depression and resentment. Both of them have the root causes of anger.
Zig Ziglar who turns 80 next month and I am going to his birthday party said that at the Florida penitentiary, they did some psychological, emotional checkups on the inmates, and they found out that 100 percent --not 90, not 95 -- of the men in the penitentiary were angry with their father.
You know, as parents, all of us have gotten angry with our children. And you know what, there’s something about when you get angry at your kids they straighten up a lot quicker. And so that almost reinforces parents to show anger quicker because it kind of gives quicker results. But I guess God’s words says that you may get quick results, but what happens is that it begins to go into resentment in their life and the payback sometimes comes even years later. So realize the cost.
3. Reflect before reacting.
"A stupid man gives free reign to his anger; a wise man waits and lets it grow cool." Proverbs 29:11
You know, delay is a tremendous tool in helping you control your anger. I’m not talking about delaying for months or weeks. I’m talking about catching yourself and pulling back maybe for a half hour. Letting it kind of simmer a little bit. Just understanding what’s happening to you, your feeling, your reactions.
Anger is the result of ..
Hurt
Frustration
Fear
Thomas Jefferson, in his book Rules For Living, said, "When you’re angry, count to 10 before you speak. And when you’re very angry, count to 100." Haven’t you done that before? 75 years later, Mark Twain took those words and revised them. He said, "When angry, count to four. When very angry, swear." That’s not biblical advice.
4. Release your anger appropriately.
There are right ways and wrong ways to do this.
"If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin."
Ephesians 4:26 (GN)
"A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control." Proverbs 29:11
Now, you know what psychology says? Psychology says that on the inside, we’re a bucket full of anger. They say the way to get rid of it is to just spill it. They call it "emotional venting" or "vomit." They say once you empty the bucket of anger you’ll be okay.
Now, I want you to know, that may be what psychology says but that isn’t the way it really works, because you’re not a bucket full of anger. You and I are a factory. There is a world of difference between a bucket and a factory. When anger is released inappropriately, it just increases the volume of anger that we have on the inside. God’s word and human experience will tell you that if you become aggressive, it usually leads to more aggression. And if you become abusive, it usually leads to more abuse. And if you become angry, it just leads to more anger until it becomes a pattern within your life.
5. Re-pattern your mind.
"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2
The way you think determines how you feel.
The way you feel determines how you act.
Your beliefs control your behavior.
So if I’m acting angry, it’s because I’m feeling angry. And if I’m feeling angry, it’s because I’m thinking angry. So I have to go clear back to my thought line and begin to re-pattern the way I think, since my thinking controls my behavior. You see, our mind needs to be reprogrammed, because I can almost guarantee that if you watch any TV show, somewhere in that show, anger will be expressed, and almost always in the wrong way. Somebody will get a gun, shoot somebody. Somebody will smack somebody across the head. Somebody will cuss and swear. You’ll see a great deal of anger expressed wrongly, because it’s very common in our American society.
If you have a real problem with this, I encourage you to take the verses I’ve mentioned this morning, and memorize them. Reprogram your mind.
6. Relate to people that are patient.
"Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared." Proverbs 22:24-25
Anger is contagious. And it’s a learned behavior. In fact, we learn how to blow up from watching other people blow up. It’s a learned behavior. And the proverb writer says, "Don’t hang around with those kind of people, because if you do, you will find yourself becoming an increasingly angry person."
7. Rely on Christ’s help.
"May God who gives patience, steadiness, and encouragement, help you to live in complete harmony with each other -- each with the attitude of Christ toward the other." Romans 15:5
Patience is waiting without worrying.
When God develops you and me, he’s not in the FedEx business. You can’t Next Day air or fax character. You can’t microwave the fruit of the spirit. It’s a process. It takes time. Remember the story of Moses? Remember how one day he saw how the Jewish people were being persecuted? He struck and killed an Egyptian soldier, and had to flee for his life. And for the next 40 years, you know where Moses was? He was out on the back-side of a desert. It was that 40-year, back-side-of-the-desert experience that God developed Moses to be a great leader for the children of Israel.
You see, God’s motto in developing our patience goes something like this: "When it absolutely, positively must be done in 40 years." I promise you that the best attributes in your life are developed through a long, tedious, trying process. And your greatest accomplishments will be made over a long period of time. In fact, every great character in the Bible went through not the microwave process, but the crockpot process. God isn’t interested in microwave Christians. He wants to put us in the crockpot, let us simmer, bring out the best in us.
Here’s what I’m saying. The best things often will take a long time. And we’ll never get what we need from God if we pray a prayer like, "Oh, God, give me patience and give it to me now." I’ve prayed that prayer before, haven’t you? Don’t forget the word to Isaiah, "Yet those who wait upon the Lord, they shall renew their strength." It talks about mounting up with wings as eagles.
Have a blessed week, exercise patience this week in your relationships and in your business—they are one in the same. I appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you and God Bless.
In Service,
Jack Weinzierl
http://OneOasis.com
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