This is the part I think we need to really get into today, "...Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life" (Revelation 22:17, NLT). Because, let's face it, we can be rather pushy. Especially when we're convinced that we are right and someone else is wrong. We think it's our job to "fix" that situation. Usually be beating them over the head with our rightness and their wrongness, until they can see things as they really are, and come over to our side. But that's not how God operates, so it shouldn't be how we operate. Because, really, it is God operating in us and through us and as us that really makes a difference. We don't try to do what He would do. We simply let Him do what He's of a mind to do (one more time) in us, and through us, and as us. He reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. But here's the key: "Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?" (Romans 2:4, NLT). In the KJV it reads, "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" Repentance--thinking differently about something in light of something else. Turning from our sin (or unbelief, or the lie of the world), in light of the truth. The ultimate truth of the universe is that God is love and He loves you. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. There. Right there. That's the key. God prepared a table for us in the presence of our enemies. A six-course meal known as the Six Steps to the Throne (Jesus was Crucified, Died, Buried, Quickened, Raised, and Seated). But He doesn't force us to come. Remember when we looked at the parable of the feast? People had lots of excuses as to why NOT to come. And the Master didn't force them to. He just opened up His feast to everybody else. And, yes, He urged people to come unto the feast was full. But there's a difference between being urged and being forced. I don't believe God forces His will on us. I believe we have a measure of free will. Free choice. We can believe whatever we want to. The Spirit and the bride say, "Come," but we don't HAVE to come. We SHOULD, because they are inviting us into the best thing going, but we don't have to. And I'm not talking about missing out on heaven in the afterlife. If you listen to my podcast you know how I feel about the afterlife. I'm talking about missing out on what is available to us right now. Missing out on the abundant LIFE that Jesus came so that we might have. I'm talking about the more excellent way that is Jesus, that is love. I'm talking about answering the ringing of the dinner bell. If the Kingdom of God is at hand--that means it's within reach. All we have to do is receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. Release it by receiving it. Fill ourselves to overflowing with what God has already filled us with and let what is already inside come out. The LOVE that is already inside come out when we know and believe that it's in there. And that's how we experience this love feast. We let God love us and we love Him back by loving the people we come into contact with. But unless someone desires that living water... they won't reach out for it. So just present it to them, instead of trying to force it on them. Let people do what they're going to do--you can't really stop them anyway. And love them no matter what. That is the goodness of God. That is what people will see and desire. His goodness. His mercy. His forgiveness. His grace. His love!

I firmly believe that God is too much of a gentleman to force His will on us. Having said that, I think there were times when He did just that. The cross, for example. When Jesus was lifted up from the earh and drew all men into Himself. We didn't have any say in that. And, if you take the book of Jonah for instance, there are times when God will go to great lengths to accomplish what He wants to accomplish THROUGH WHO He wants to accomplish it. My pastor says it like this, "Some are called, and some are cornerd." But I said all that to say this: "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Now, if something is at hand, that means it's close. It's within reach. All you have to do, quite frankly, is grab it. Which is where repenting comes in. All it takes is a change in your mindset. Literally from a "worldly" mindset to a Kingdom mindset. Which, to me, is what fighting the good fight of faith is all about--laying hold of the gift of eternal life that we've been given. Receiving the gift, and experiencing the gift by releasing the gift. Because love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. So the best way to repent (which means think differently about something in light of something else... use new information to make better decisions) is by filling yourself up to overflowing with what God has filled you up with. Letting His love come out of you naturally as you let Him love you and love Him back by loving people. That's what this life is for and that's what this life is all about. But here's the thing, and I'm going to quote it from Scripture so we don't get it twisted. Speaking of love in 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NLT), "or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged." I don't know why they split it up like that to have the last two words of what should be verse 4 in verse 5, but I digress. The point is: Love does not demand it's own way. Or, since God is love, God does not demand HIS own way. He makes things available to us. And invites us to partake of them. And we partake of them by inviting others to partake of them. We have been reconciled, and given that same ministry of reconciliation. We have been forgiven... we can forgive. Remember, you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. When we understand just what (WHO, Jesus, love) we have... we will begin to experience it. The Spirt and the bride say, "Come." And when we hear that ringing of the dinner bell, when we hear Jesus standing at the door and knocking, that's when we can sup with Him. That's when we can experience the love feast that is the Lamb and the living water. The bread and the wine. Communion with Jesus. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood--or, to say it another way, filling ourselves with Him. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with so that it can come out of us... naturally. Receiving and releasing the love of God is the Kingdom mindset that lets us acces and enjoy the Kingdom! As soon as Jesus showed up, He brought the Kingdom with Him. Because the Kingdom is the realm where the King rules and reigns. So, really, WE are the Kingdom. He is the King of kings, and we are the kings and the kingdom that HE rules and reigns in, and through, and as. Everything we need is availaible to us. All we have to do is reach out and take it... by reaching out and giving it!

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Not "Come... or else," but "Come and get it!" What God has made available to us--specifically in the context of Revelation 22:17--is the living water. And the caveat is, "Let the one who is thirsty, come." That's literally all it takes. If you want what God has made available to you... it's yours! Because IN making it available to us... He has given it to us. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Jesus living His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love in us, and through us, and as us. But let's talk about the invitation a little bit. This is a big story, but I want to lay it out so we can talk about for the next couple of days. "Hearint this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, "What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!" Jesus replied wtih this story: "A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, 'Come, the banquet is ready.' But they all began making excuses. One said, 'I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.' Another said, 'I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.' Another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.' The servant returned and told his mater what they had said. His master was furious and said, 'Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.' After the servant had do ne this, he reported, 'There is still room for more.' So his master said, 'Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet'" (Luke 14:15-224, NLT). There's a whole lot there. And we could really dive in deep and look at each one of the excuses, and the Spiritual meanings, but what I really want from this story, for today--and the rest of this Rant series--is the idea that nobody who was invited wanted to come... and the idea that the master (God) and his servant (Jesus) opened the door to any and everybody. Opened it... and even urged people to come in. Now get this: Those who didn't come were too busy with their own affairs. Those who came... were those we are hungry. When we think we've got it all figured out, we kind of tend to "leave God out of it." I can handle this. I'm good. And it's not until it's too late that we try to get Him involved again. Which is kind of the point of the whole thing: God doesn't just want to be a PART of your life. He wants to BE your life. Because He IS life! One of the verses heavy on my heart lately is Psalm 119:105 (NLT), "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path." God's Word, of course, being Jesus. Being love. Love lights the way. And since we are all so desperate for love--desperate enough to look for love in all the wrong places--we really ought to just learn to go to the source. To listen to the Spirit and the bride. To hear the dinner bell ringing and come running, because supper's ready! And, furthermore, bring a friend with you! It's a FEAST. There is plenty for everybody. Don't think God is going to run out of food, or water (or, in this case, LOVE). He IS our sustenance. He is the Lamb and the living water. The bread and the wine. You are what you eat so we need to get on a steady diet of Jesus! A steady diet of love! Fill ourselves to overflowing with what God has already filled us with and let it come out of us, naturally! Take the open invitation to the feast that we've been given... and give it away to any and every body!

The verse that is stuck in my head (and heart) right now is Revelation 22:17. So I'm gonna preach it (or Rant on it) until my heart is empty on it. "The Spirit and the bride say, "come." Let anyone who hears this say, "Come." Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life" (Revelation 22:17, NLT). And to me, it's important that we DON'T see this as a command. I believe God is too much of a gentleman to force His will upon us. He went to great lengths--literaly bringing mountains low and valleys high--so that we could walk the straight and narrow path that leads to life. He didn't want to make it hard on us, He wanted to make it easy on us. He shows us the way by making His Word (which is Jesus, which is love) a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. He shows us the way by saying, "Come." And it's not, "Come... or else." It's, "Come and get it." The Spirit and the bride are ringing the dinner bell to let us know that supper is ready! The six-course meal that Jesus prepared for us in the presence of our enemies is the six steps that He took to the throne. Crucified, died, buried, quickened, raised, seated. Jesus did all the hard work. All of the heavy lifting. He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. He came that we might experience HIS life by letting HIM live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. And the thing that makes the abundant life abundant... is life. The life of Jesus is His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Love. And nobody can live Jesus' life except Him. So instead of trying to live His life... we let Him live it in us, and through us, and as us. But here's the rub: As amazing as this life is... in the same way that God WON'T force it upon us... we CAN'T force it upon anybody else. The call to "come" is an invitation. And notice that once you hear that call... you make that call! You receive it... and release it. "And all things are of God, who hath reonciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18). We are reconciled... we can reconcile. Simply by being a witness. By sharing our experience with God's love with each other. Letting God love us and loving Him back by loving each other. God's love inside of us WILL come out of us when we know and believe that we have it. The key is to desire. To understand that our desire... is love. And it can only be found in God--who IS love. Instead of looking for love in all the wrong places, we need to just go to the source. We need to experience what we've got by giving it away. And we give it in the same way that it is given to us. Freely we receive, freely we can give. We have been invited (by the Spirit and the bride) we can invite others. Share what we've got. The six-course meal is a love feast. There is more than enough food--love--to go around. Don't think you'll ever run out. God's love is unlimited. In fact, the more you give it away, the more you have. Because love IS giving. You can't run out of it. You experience it by giving it away. If you want to feel love... love somebody. Give what you've got, and in that way experience what you've got. But don't make it hard on people. Say come. Not, "Come and jump through the hoops." Not, "Come... or else." But, "Come and get it!" Ring the dinner bell. Anybody who is thirsty can come and drink. The water of life is available. It's at hand. It's within reach. So get you a drink. Pull up a chair. And bring a friend to this more excellent way of life that IS Jesus... that is love!

The way to stand firm, and be courageous, is to know what you're standing on, and what you're standing for. To know that God's love will keep you from falling. Which isn't preached very often, but is EXACTLY what Jude 1:24 says, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." In the NKJ it reads, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Falling... or even stumbling! Because we're walking by faith and not by sight, perhaps? Because we know that everything is under our feet? And even though we don't always SEE everything under our feet... we see Jesus? That's some powerful stuff, man. That's some blessed assurance stuff. That's God letting know that we don't have to DO anything in order to BE what He has created us to be. HE is the one keeping us from falling or even from stumbling. HE is the one holding us up. When we're at the end of our rope and we tie a knot in it and we think we're holding on for dear life... we need to always remember that, in reality, it is God holding us. And He will never let us go. He has sworn never to leave us nor forsake us. One preacher said, "God's a stalker." It doesn't matter what you've done, He loves you and He can't stop loving you. Because love isn't just what He does... love is WHO HE IS. That's the ultimate truth of the universe: God is love and He loves you. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. God created you in order to express Himself--His love--in you, and through you, and as you! God has not given you a Spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. If you can't be courageous with power, love, and a sound mind... how can you? If you can't let His strength be perfect in your weakness... how can you be strong? Because it's not by might, and it's not by power. It's by the Spirit of God. It's by His love inside you coming out of you. That's what keeps you from falling. The way to life is straight and narrow. That's not a bad thing, that's not a scary thing, that's a good thing. That keeps you from even stumbling. He has brought every mountain low and every valley high. He has made the way straight. All we have to do is let His Word (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. All we have to do is let love guide the way. Follow your heart. And that doesn't mean try to get what you want. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. If you want to feel love... love somebody. Give them what THEY need without worrying about what YOU need. Paul said, "My God shall supply all YOUR need" (Emphasis mine). He wasn't even worried about HIS need. Because he knew he was covered. He was encouraging us to know that WE are covered to. Standing firm doesn't mean not doing anything. It simply means doing the RIGHT thing. It means filling yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with so that what's inside comes out as you know and believe it's in there. Letting God love you (which is what keeps you from stumbling or falling) and loving Him back by loving the people in your life (which is how you help THEM from stumbling and falling). Life is about relationship. It is about connection. Because life IS love. To live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. And because they are the same thing, we can help each other live by loving each other. We can help each other stand firm by giving what we've got--the love of God!

Standing firm means you will not be shaken. No matter what happens. You are planted on the Rock (which is Jesus, which is love). You know where your strength comes from. God, who is all powerful (which doesn't mean MOST powerful, but means nothing else has any powe) is love. Our strength is found in love. But the key to remember here is that love is never about getting. Because love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. Your strength, then, lies in your ability to give what you've got. Because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. If you're trying to get something, you're coming from a posture of lack, or incompleteness, or weakness. And, yes, God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. But that doesn't mean we operate from the position of weakness. That simply means we know that we can't do it without Him. That means that we rely on Him. God doesn't just want to be a part of our life--He wants to BE our life, because He IS life! If you fill yourself with love, you won't have room for anything else. And that's not being selfish or greedy. Because that's making sure you AREN'T being selfish or greedy. You can't be selfish AND love people. Because love is giving. And I'm going to be real with you: Sometimes love is hard. Because sometimes... when you love someone... you can't have what you want in that situation. You have to lay your life down... for them. Give them what THEY want (or, yes, even what they SAY they want). You can't use love to control people. You can't use love to manipulate them into your idea of who or what they should be. The Holy Spirit convicts us. Takes us by the hand and shows us HOW to be who we really are. Shows us that who we really are is who we are in Christ, which is who Christ is in us. And that--our true identity, that we are the beloved Son of God in whom He is well pleased--is where we get our strength from. That's where we stand without being shaken. That's where we operate from. Not from a posture of lack, but from a life of abundance. Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. And what makes the abudant life abundant... is love. What gives us our strength... is love. What equips and empowers us to stand fast, and not be shaken, is love. Love never fails because love endures. And, again, sometimes that's really hard. Sometimes you can't change what's going on and you just have to endure it. You can't hide from it, so you just have to be courageous and face it. Look for the bigger picture. See God's grand scheme. Understand that it came to pass, not to stay. Understand that everything works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out yet, it isn't the end yet. Longsuffering is a fruit of the Spirit. Which basically means suffering for a long time. God's chosen people were slaves for, what, 400 some odd years? That's a long time. But their end was way better than their time of tribulation. Job is an entire book of the Bible about patience and endurance. Preserverance. And here's the key--if you're looking for love in all the wrong places, you won't be able to find it. If you're looking for love at the source--in God's heart beating in your chest--you'll find it in every situation. That's what coming boldly to the throne of grace to find grace in time of need is all about. Standing firm. Going to the source. Letting what's already inside you come out with every breath you take and every move you make. And no matter what... not being shaken!

I guess it comes down to one of my mottos: "When you don't know what to do... do what you know--love!" Because no matter what's going on, you can always do that. No matter where you are or what you're going through... you can love people. Because love is not about getting. Because love is giving. We have the love we need. Jesus gave it to us when He was lifted up from the earth on the cross and drew us all into Himself. And when I say He "gave it to us," what I really mean is that God (Jesus) has always and will always love us. Forever. No matter what. What Jesus gave to us was the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that God is love and He loves you. The truth that you can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. The problem is that so often we give what we THINK we have. Or we try to get what we think we DON'T have. So often we try so hard to be someone we're not, in order to get something we think we haven't got. We run around like chickens with their heads cut off looking for love in all the wrong places instead of standing firm on the Rock that is Jesus. We go anywhere and do anything instead of just going to the source. And by that I mean looking inside ourselves. Instead of running around, we ought to be still and know that He is God. Be still and know that it is HIS heart beating with love in our chests. Be still and know that we have what we need. Which means we can do what we need to do. We can give what we've got. Because we know (and believe) that we have it. It's receiving and releasing God's love. That's how we stand firm. That's how we be courageous. It's filling ourselves to overflowing with what He has already filled us with. The love inside of us coming out of us with every breath we take and every move we make... because we know it's in there. We don't have to look for love in all the wrong places. We can stand firm, knowing that we have what we need. Knowing that we are who we need to be. If anything, we need to figure out who we REALLY are. Which is very different than trying to be someone we're not. The world has told us for a long time that we're supposed to be someone we're not. And we've bought into that lie. We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, in order to impress people that don't matter. We need to learn to be true to ourselves. We need to be so sure in the truth--that God is love and He loves you--that we can simply ignore the lie. We don't have to fight it, or get angry about it. We can just... ignore it. Don't even give it our time or attention. When you starve something, it dies. When you feed something, it grows. Don't feed into the lie. Be who you are. And be OK with being who you are. Stop conforming to the world, and understand that you have BEEN conformed into the image of God's only begotten Son! You are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. You can't top that. So stop trying to. Accept it and enjoy it. It's the best place to be. Living your best life is about experiencing love. And we experience love by giving it away. Because love is giving. (Did I already mention that?) If you're always focused on getting, you're missing out on what you've already got. Missing out on the experience of giving it away--sharing it. This life is a shared experience. It's not good that man should be alone. No man is an island. We're all in this together. So stand firm on the Rock of God's love, be who you are by receiving and releasing that love!

"When everything is wrong, we move along." Or so the song says. Point being--that's often all you can do. When things don't go the way you want them to, you can throw a fit and pout about it... or you can keep on keeping on. One of those is just going to lead to more misery. The other is going to allow you to survive. If you stay still--and, listen, I'm not saying you should pretend like nothing's happening. I'm not saying you should act like everything is fine. You shouldn't do that. You need to feel what you feel. But don't let it control you. If you stay still, you get stuck. A rolling stone gathers no moss, am I right? So keep on rocking and rolling. There is always something you can be doing. It's not about distracting yourself, as much as it is about focusing on the RIGHT thing. And remembering that having "nothing" is still better than having the wrong thing. We are so quick to settle. We think "something is better than nothing" so we accept so much less than we should. So much less than God's plan for us. Because we don't think we deserve it, or we don't think we've earned it. When deserve has nothing to do with it, and when the wages that you earn that the Bible talks about is the wages of sin (or unbelief) which is death. Believing anything other than the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God... is death. The opposite of experiencing life. Because love IS life. To live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. Let me say it like this: No love... no life. KNOW love... KNOW life! That's the key to this whole thing, and that--unfortunately--is why we get so twisted around and messed up so often. We want love so desperately that we will take anything that makes us "feel" loved. In reality, love is never about getting, or taking. Because love IS giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. If you want to feel love, stop waiting for someone to fall from the sky. If you want to feel love... love somebody. Give what you've got. And in that way, experience what you've got. You have everything you need. Right now. You have no lack because your God has no lack. God IS love. And you are connected to that unlimited source of love. All you have to do is receive it and release it. Stand firm on the Rock that is Jesus. Let God love you and love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. When you know and believe the ultimate truth of the universe, that God is love and He loves you, you don't have to listen to anything or anybody else. You can simply ignore the lie. You don't have to--and in fact can't be--blown about by any wind of doctrine. And here's the thing, knowing and believing is a knowledge that passes knowledge. Not merely a head knowledge, but a heart knowledge. An experiential knowledge. You're a witness to God's love when you share your experience. And no matter how bad whatever it is you're going through right now is... you can stand firm in the knowledge that what's coming is greater than what's past. It might not feel like it today, but you really are being set up for a breakthrough. A setback is just a set up for a comeback. And everybody loves a good comeback story. So don't get discouraged. Again--feel what you feel. But don't get stuck there. Don't let it control you. Truth is higher than fact, and the truth of the matter is: You're going to be ok. You're heavenly Father loves you, and has your back. So don't worry. Cast your cares on Him. He cares for you. Keep on keeping on. Upward and onward. Upward and GOD-ward! 

Life comes at you fast. It really does. And when you don't have anything to hold onto it can really throw you for a loop. What I'm trying to say is, "Be on guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong" (1 Corinthians 16:13, NLT). And to me, this is different than, "You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything." This is more like "If you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot in it." Because it's easy to let life pile up on you. It's hard to keep your head above water, sometimes. It's only when you are planted on the Rock that is Jesus--that is love--that you can really stand firm. You have to be on solid ground. And that comes from standing firm... in the faith. That comes from being strong in the Lord and the power of HIS might. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He knows what we need better than we do. He knows what we need before we do. He knows what we need... and has already provided it for us. So we don't need to worry. We don't need to wreck ourselves, or let life wreck us. We can be courageous. We can face the day no matter what. No matter what we have to go through, we can know--for certain--that we will get through it. God is love and He loves you. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. That's the ultimate truth of the universe. That's the Rock that we stand on. That's what we put our faith in. Jesus said, "Have faith in God." And God is love. So we are to have faith in love. We are to believe that the most important thing... is love. That's how we build connections with each other. That's how we let go and let God. That's how we experience this life that Jesus came so that we might have. We let God love us and we love Him back by loving each other. We make sure that we know--beyond every shadow of a doubt--that we are loved. We will be ok because at the end of the day... God is love and He loves you. Stand firm on THAT truth. Stand and be courageous. Stand and be strong. Fill yourself up to overflowing with the love that God has filled you with and let it come out. Naturally. With every breath you take and every move you make. Let it be what it's going to be and be ok with it. You are not in control of everything and everybody. You are not in charge of what people say or do. All you can control is yourself. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. It's important. Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD. There are other considerations besides just what you want. When I said earlier that God knows what you NEED, that "need" word is important. Being able to tell the difference between what you want and you need is important. Needs trump wants. I always say, "If you don't know how to love someone, see a need and meet it." That, to me, is the most basic and simple way to do it. That, to me, is what love is all about. People have different needs. And you can't be expected to meet all of them. So just do what you can do. Live out of your abundance. Let things be what they are, and be ok with it. Unless you absolutely can't. Change the things you cannot accept and accept the things you cannot change. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. "Is this worth getting upset about?" Will this matter in a year, or a month, or a week? Is there anything I can do about this? And once you answer those questions--act accordingly. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Be who you are. Compromise is good, but don't compromise who you are. Stand fast. Stand firm. Stand on the Rock, and love God (by loving people) with the love that you have been loved with!

Love is patient, and love is kind. To me those really go hand in hand. If you're not being kind, are you really being patient? If you're not loving people, does it matter what you're doing? Love does not demand it's (His, Jesus') own way. You don't love someone because of what they do for you. Love is never about getting, because love IS giving. You love someone because of what GOD has done for you. He filled you up with His love. That's why you have something to give. You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. Filling yourself to overflowing with what God has already filled you with is how you experience what God has given you. Let what's inside come out. Stop thinking of yourself as lacking anything. We have no lack because our God has no lack. Love-which is not just what God does, but is who God is... and is not just what WE do, but is who WE are--does not just HAVE patience. Love IS patience. It's like the Wizard of Oz, truly. We spend (waste) so much of our three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) trying to get things we think we haven't got, and we miss out on experiencing and enjoying what we have got. I don't think I necessarily agree with "If you ask God for patience He will give you opportunities to be patient." Because this whole life is an opportunity to be patient! The key is in realizing that we don't need anything. We simply ought to begin to use what we have. We don't need to change, we need to see ourselves as we truly are. Which, granted, can FEEL like a change. But it's really just the laying aside of anything that is not true about us. "I'm just not a patient person." Really? Why don't you spend some time focusing on how much God loves you and how patient He is with you. That might change your mindset a little bit. Both about what it means to BE patient--we seem to think it means holding on until we get our own way--and about whether or not we ARE patient. To me, patience is simply not having a negative reaction when we don't get our own way. Seeing past this moment and understanding that there is a bigger picture. All things work together for good, right? So we need to let things play out instead of having such an intense reaction to THIS moment. Feel what you feel, but don't let it control you. Understand that there is a grand scheme at work. Everything works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out yet, it isn't the end yet. Trust God that He has your best interests at heart and that He knows what He's doing. Rome wasn't built in a day. This journey into the heart of the matter (which is the heart) that we call life is a never-ending journey. It's all about learning and growing. Going through things so that we can then help others through those same things. What's that old saying? "Accept the things you cannot change, and change the things you cannot accept." Something like that. But, at the same time, as much as it is possible, live in peace with people. Don't expect people to be what YOU want them to be. People are who they are. They're going to do whatever it is they're going to do whether you want them to or not. So don't get all upset about it. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Be patient. Be kind. Love them anyway. Love them in spite of their differences to you. Love them BECAUSE of their differences! Celebrate people for who THEY are rather than trying to make them be someone they're not. If you're waiting for people to change into what you want them to be... that's not patience. If you're accepting people for who they are... that's kind, patient love!