Earlier today, I was pondering what attribute of God’s character had the greatest impact on my life. Now, I know that it is impossible to narrow it to one and that I am in need of all that God is in my life. I also realize that, like a favorite passage of scripture, choosing one favorite part of God’s character is likely to change depending on the season of my life.

With all of those considerations in mind, I still believe that the most meaningful part of God’s character to my life is the abundance of patient grace. I look back over my life and I am amazed how overwhelmingly patient God was, and is, with me. I am struck by what a slow learner I can be, and by how easily I am distracted from what I’ve been taught by God. I wonder if I have even a portion of that patience with the people in my life.

I am struck by how that patient grace shapes my life as God gently, and sometimes not so gently, guides me along the right path and brings me back to it from my occasional departures. It would be so easy for God to grow weary with me, yet that never happens. In fact, it seems like the more I chafe, wander and struggle, the more God steps in to remind me of his love, forgive me of my sins, and empower me to take the right, next step.

Often others, the devil and even I, speak words of judgement and defeat over my life, yet God, like a gentle, loving parent, chooses a different path – the path of patient grace. His words are filled with compassion, hope and promise. God sees what I cannot always see in myself and calls it forth from within me.

I can only speak for my own journey, but I know that I will be forever grateful for the blessing of that grace. I know that when I am aware of it working in my life, I feel God’s divine strength enabling me to become who I was made to be in him. Many people I know struggle with their past and their failures, but I thank God that we are not defined by them.

God said, and says, “Behold, I make all things new.” The Holy Spirit working in us can overcome our past and our present and lead us into the future we were destined to live. Won’t you join my in confessing with so many others like us, “I may not be where I want to be, but I’m sure not where I used to be! Thanks be to God!”