Join Rick Hughes on The Flatline for an empowering discourse on cultivating patience in the face of adversity. Through a rich tapestry of biblical references and practical wisdom, this episode offers a blueprint for enduring chaos with grace. By embracing the faith-rest drill and developing spiritual reserves, believers can rise above personal and social chaos. Rick also cautions against common pitfalls such as impatience and unrealistic expectations that cloud judgment, and emphasizes the importance of aligning one’s life with divine timing for true spiritual fulfillment.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around. 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, education without any manipulation. I don’t claim to have a better understanding than many others on the airwaves who have Christian teaching shows, but I do proclaim one thing. We don’t sell stuff. Christian marketing, I believe, is atrocious. It’s sad. I get numerous ads over social media, sometimes television, radio, other communication mediums, trying to sell me a book or a video about God. or about his word. This Christian marketing, I believe, is totally wrong and totally dishonoring to God. Grace living frees us from human dependency, so me and my associates have learned that if God’s in it, God will pay for it. So we proclaim the truth, we proclaim the gospel, teach his word, and let our Heavenly Father handle the finances. He does, He has, and He always will. That’s what’s so wonderful about grace. It sets us free from the bondage of marketing community. What we offer on this show, all free. Free books, free transcripts, free MP3s, free DVDs, free if you order. If you want to grow, if you’re interested in reaching spiritual maturity, that’s why we have this radio show, to give you the truth, to point you in the right direction of a well-qualified pastor where you can grow spiritually. and become the man or the woman God intended you to be. Today, I’d like to talk to you about something that’s very critical in the Christian life and it’s called patience. How do you develop patience? Something that if you’re a bass fisherman like me, you better have some patience because you’re not gonna catch them all the time. Patience is required in chaos and in suffering and adversity. So we wanna talk about how you develop patience in chaos and adversity. It could be spiritual chaos, which is you suffering for discipline or maybe suffering for blessing like Job did. It could be political chaos, and this is humanistic or socialistic agendas that try to change the direction of a nation, like in the atheist attacks on religion I noticed in the paper today or in the news today that the atheists in the state of Mississippi are suing to get In God We Trust taken off the car tags. Pitiful. It’s just another sign of what Satan is trying to do to remove any influence of God in the minds of those that don’t hear about it. If they can take away that information from the mind, then people don’t know, and it’s another attack on God’s grace. Chaos, physical, personal chaos, self-induced flaws where you develop them yourself. They take over your own life. They’re not inherited flaws. They’re developed flaws. and they can cause a lot of personal chaos in your life. You know what I’m talking about. So adversity or chaos is where your faith needs to be developed. Sometimes this is called in the Bible momentum testing. This sort of testing gives you the opportunity to apply the word of God or Bible doctrine that you’ve learned. But you, rest assured about this thought, you’ll never gain spiritual maturity until you go through these tests. You might not want to do it, but you’re going to have to face these tests. This is how God helps you to grow up. Testing in time is an opportunity for you to develop patience, a wonderful asset in the Christian life. Listen to Psalm 37.7. Here we go. Be still. Uh-oh. Be still. Does that sound like patience? Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Now listen, God never promised me any rose garden, and he didn’t promise you that either. He never promised us that everything was going to be rosy and comfortable in the devil’s world when we accepted Christ as our Savior. So adversity and the resulting chaos that we face in our life is time for us to shine. It’s time for us to really glorify God when we go through that. We don’t try to run ahead of God and solve our own problems with human solutions that are in reality no solutions. But we wait on God, we stand still, we wait on God. That’s not what Christian activism tries to do. Christian activism tries to clean up the devil’s world. But the Bible says, be still, wait, Psalm 37, seven. It’s the Hebrew word daman, daman. And that Hebrew word is a verb that shows action. That action is you using your volition called faith. Faith. So damon is a cal imperative verb in the Hebrew, meaning this is a divine command from God through the writings of David, the man who penned this psalm. And if it’s in the cow stem as it is here, then it’s an active voice verb, meaning we are the ones that must do this. We have to produce the faith to stand still. Faith is how we grow our patience. So one, in adversity, testing, suffering, you must use your volition. to be still, stand still, and develop patience. Don’t try to get out in front of God’s timing. Don’t try to solve it your own self. Wait on the divine solution. which will be revealed to you in the scriptures and you can then execute the faith rest drill. This type of mental attitude, we call it problem solving device number three, the faith rest drill. It’s critical in the Christian life. You’re never going to get anywhere until you learn how to use a faith rest drill. If you don’t understand that, write to me. We’ll send you a book on the faith rest drill so you can get that down. So one of the reasons that God will allow this sort of pressure or chaos into our life is so that through our patience, we can glorify him by using these problem-solving devices. However, self-induced misery, suffering, chaos could actually be a sign of divine discipline. Now let’s look at your life for a minute. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews 12, five through seven said about that. Have you forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons? My son, the Bible goes on to say, do not scorn the Lord’s discipline or give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son that he accepts. Therefore endure your suffering as discipline because God is treating you as a son. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? If you have been out of fellowship, if you have failed to rebound, problem-solving device number one, more than likely you’ve gone into reversionism, some people call it backsliding, and you may be having some divine discipline or God lowering the hammer into your life. How would you know if your suffering is divine discipline? Very simply, do you have unconfessed sin in your life? Do you have unconfessed sin in your life, or do you have a pattern of arrogance that keeps surfacing in your life? This will bring about divine discipline. Now, on the other hand of it, suffering for blessing, that’s part of the believer’s maturing process. the lord jesus christ promised his disciples they were going to have a lot of suffering and it was coming listen to john 16 1-3 i told you all these things jesus said so that you will not fall away they will put you out of the synagogue that means kick you out of church yet a time is coming when the one who kills you will actually think he’s offering service to god And they will do these things because they have not known the Father and they have not known me. So when he said, I told you these things, what exactly did he tell them? What is that referring to, these things, so that you won’t fall away? Well, let me read what he told them. In John 15, 18 through 27, here’s what he told them. If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first. And if you belong to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world for this reason, the world hates you. So remember what I told you, a slave is not greater than his master. And if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. but they will do all of these things to you on account of my name because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin, but they no longer have any excuse for their sin because the one who hates me hates my father too. If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they would not be guilty of rejecting me, but now they’ve seen these deeds and they’ve hated both me and my father.” Now this has happened to fulfill the words that are written in their own law. They hated me without reason. When the advocate comes, that’s the Holy Spirit, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me and you also will testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning. Now would have been a good time for these disciples to bail. He just told them there’s going to be a death contract on them. He just told them there’s a time coming when someone wants to kill you and think he’s offering service to God. And all of those disciples, with the exception of John, did die great martyrs’ deaths. This is personal. Satan has a contract on these guys, just like he did on the Lord Jesus Christ, and just like he does on you. John 8, 44, Jesus Christ said to the religious crowd, you people are from your father, the devil, And you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning. And he does not uphold the truth because there is no truth in him. And whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies. So be still in that verse of Psalm 37. That word be still implies that you put on the armor of God and you wait patiently for God to provide your solutions. Wait patiently for God’s provisions. As you move through the time dimension in your life, you’ll have the opportunity to live a life free of frustration, free of anger, free of fear. It’s what we call the supernatural life, the Christian life. And it can only be lived with supernatural assets given by God, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God indwelling in you. But if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, and if you’ve learned the Word of God, which is the mind of Christ, you can actually replicate the attitude of Christ as he traveled through the devil’s world. Because there’s one thing our Lord possessed that we often overlook, and that’s divine patience. He had great patience with those disciples, I assure you. Patience is a amazingly powerful character asset that frees you from emotional sins that often override your thinking, producing other mental attitude sins. I know some people want an aspirin panacea. They want a desire for a quick response. Take two aspirin, call a doctor in the morning. You know, you’ve heard that. These are the impatient, desperate people who fail to realize that it took years to become losers spiritually. And therefore, you’re not going to become a winner believer overnight. What’s the difference between winners and losers? Losers are believers who break fellowship with God, get into reversionism, do not recover, and go down that my way highway until eventually they die the sin unto death. Winners are those people who learn God’s word, apply God’s word, glorify God, and replicate the life of Christ. So you might be able to recover quickly from your sin by rebounding. But getting back to spiritual maturity or spiritual stability will take a little bit of time. That’s why you have to be patient in your spiritual life. You’re not going to get all the answers overnight. You know, it’s typical of a lot of people, and I’ve met them in my life, that have a lot of questions, and before you answer one question, they’re thinking of another question. They want all their questions answered right now, and as quick as they can think of them. But you must be patient in your Christian life and wait on God to teach you. Because impatience is a tremendous mental defect that leads to the sins of worry and fear and anger. And it’s this impatience is an acquired flaw. It’s brought about by unrealistic expectations on your part. Have you been that way? Have you gotten unrealistic expectations? If you abide in Christ, you may have some faults to overcome, but you will not have flaws that cloud your judgment. I’m gonna say that one more time. If you abide in Christ, you may have faults to overcome, but you will not have flaws that cloud your judgment. because as you grow in grace, you will develop wisdom and you’ll have discernment and insight and understanding, and your judgment won’t be clouded. Yes, you still have a sin nature. Yes, you still have to use your volition to stand still and avoid that sin of worry. But unrealistic expectations on your part are a symptom of some self-centered arrogance all with this unrealistic self-image. You’re always right, the rest of the world is always wrong, the rest of the world is always messed up, but not you, you’re right. So your frustration, your anger, your bitterness, your evil speaking can all stem from a lack of patience in your life. Do you want to be a patient man or a patient woman as the Lord tells you to be? Well, how does that come about? Well, through trials. For example, Luke 21, 15, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by your parents, the Lord Jesus Christ said, by your brothers and your sisters and your relatives and your friends. and they will even put some of you to death, and everyone will hate you because of me, but not a hair on your head will perish. Stand firm, stand still, and you will win life. There it is again. Stand firm, stand still. Patiently wait on the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there is no temptation overtaking you, except what is common to mankind, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you’re tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. What does that mean? In human terms, God’s not going to throw you under the bus. He’s not going to abandon you. He said, I’ll never leave you. I’ll never forsake you. I give unto them eternal life, and they will never perish. Even no man shall ever pluck him out of my father’s hand. Pluck him out of my father’s hand. There’s a verse in 2 Timothy 2.13 that says, even if we believe not, yet he abides faithful before he cannot deny himself. So the Father’s not going to abandon you. You’re going to go through trials. You have to. That’s how you grow. That’s how you develop patience. That’s how you develop, do your wisdom and apply your wisdom to your life. Listen to Romans 12, 12. Be joyful in hope and patient in affliction. Another word for suffering, another word for chaos. Be joyful in hope, patient in your chaos, in your afflictions, and be faithful in your prayers. Patience over emotions in testing is critical because endurance is developed by means of testing, momentum testing. You have to go through that momentum testing. All of us have to go through that momentum testing. And if you do, then you can develop patience. Through undeserved suffering, you develop patience, 1 Peter 2.20. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and you endure it But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. So undeserved suffering is a way to develop patience, patience over your emotions and testing, and endurance is developed by means of testing, as I said. Listen to 2 Corinthians 12, critical verse for you. Or because of these surpassingly great revelations, therefore in order to keep me from becoming conceited, this is Paul writing about his suffering, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan, to torment me Three times I asked the Lord to take it away from me, but he said, no, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weaknesses. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That’s why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weaknesses, I delight in insults, I delight in hardships, I delight in persecutions and difficulties for when I’m weak, then I’m actually strong. What he’s saying there is that he’s responding by using the word of God and patience and not reacting with bitterness and frustration and anger. When you have difficulty or chaos in your life, do you react or do you respond? Reaction lets your emotions get in charge and you’ll get angry and you’ll get mad and you’ll get bitter, but responding goes to faith rest. Waiting, be still, be patient, be strong, wait on the Lord. This is what’s required to develop the spiritual life. Patience is developed by means of your very own spiritual life. Listen to James 1.4. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. So this is one of the things God will put you through. He will put you through these tests, through these chaotic times that you’ll go through in your life to teach you to use the faith rest drill which is another way of saying to be patient in your suffering, to be patient in your adversity. So the Lord direct your hearts in the love of God into patience of Christ, 2 Thessalonians 3, 5. Listen again. And the Lord direct your hearts, that’s spiritually mature believers, into the love of God and into patience from Christ. That’s divine viewpoint thinking. That’s critical that you think divine viewpoint, not human viewpoint. Colossians 1, 9 through 11, for this reason we also since the day we heard of it do not cease to pray for you, Paul said to the church at Colossae. that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that you would walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power. with all patience and long-suffering. Two Greek words for patience, hupomone and macrothumia. Hupomone is patience and long-suffering. Macrothumia is another type of patience. But there’s another word for patience in the Bible called anokei. and that’s translated forbearance. It’s when God holds back punishment. It’s a quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation that does not hastily retreat or promptly try to solve the problem on your own, punish somebody. It’s the opposite of anger and it’s associated with mercy. Listen to how God has forbearance. In 1 Peter 3.20, God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which eight souls were saved by water. That’s forbearance. So God wants you to be patient with people. God wants you to be patient with circumstances, and he himself demonstrates patience with you. The impatience is an acquired flaw in your soul that you can let it control you. You can get ready to pull the pin on those mental attitude sins and move into revenge, motivation, fear, anger, frustration, like pulling the pin on a grenade if you have no patience. All of these frustrations, all of these chaotic times, suffering, can produce in you agitation. And that’s the first step into you moving into full-blown anger in your life. So faith is your invisible muscle. The word pistis in the Greek, P-I-S-T-I-S, is the word faith. It represents conviction and trust and confidence. all based on the character of God in Christ. But I can warn you, never, never put your faith in man. Don’t do that. Put your faith in God and in his word. Hebrews 11 one, now faith is being sure of what we hope for and being convinced of what we do not see. So as we demonstrate confidence in the plan of God, confidence in God’s timing, you and I can live with confident expectation of his best for us. if we walk by faith and not by sight. Walking by faith and not by sight. So without faith, you can never have God’s approval in your life. It’s critical you understand that. Hebrews 11, six, without faith, it’s impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. So your faith and my faith, it grows by means of biblical assimilation, doctrinal assimilation and application. Where does the Bible say that? Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That’s why I always insist that you get under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor and hear the teaching of the word of God because it produces faith in your life. It gives you wisdom in your life, which is insight and discernment from understanding. And this is critical for you, because without patience, you cannot live the spiritual life. You can’t survive in the devil’s world. you’re gonna go crazy fighting all the chaos that you see, because there’s a lot of chaos in the world today, and so many Christian activists want to straighten it out. Political chaos, personal chaos, spiritual chaos, as I told you at the beginning of the show, it’s all there, and it’s all happening. So it is my prayer that you’re listening My prayer that you will make that single most significant decision in your life to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept him as your savior. It’s not hard to do. You don’t have to go forward. You don’t have to go backwards. You don’t have to raise your hand. You don’t have to go under. You don’t have to go up. Just do what the Bible said. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. John 3.16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Faith is you believing in God’s plan. Patience in your salvation is critical because then you trust in God. Then you know you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior. You know your eternal destiny is secure. You know you’re going to heaven. You don’t have a thing to fear, a thing to worry about. And this is what Satan will try to take away from you. He’ll try to frustrate you. He’ll try to get you to think you’re not really saved because you did some terrible sin, and now God probably threw you out and won’t let you come to heaven. That’s stupid. That’s not true. The Bible doesn’t teach that at all. The Bible teaches that the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other. And we have an adversary inside of us, an old sin nature. And we have to conquer that joker so that we can develop faith and patience in our life. Patience to trust God, patience to wait on God, patience to wait on circumstances to open up because without patience, you will make mistakes. You will run ahead of God. You will try to put your plan into motion before God’s plan is ready. I’ve seen it many times. Christians that love the Lord, Christians that are well-meaning people get ahead of God. They get this idea that God told them to do something, and you ask them, how do you know God told you to do it? Well, I just got a feeling. Did you hear God say it? No, but I know God wants me to do this. And then two years later, they find out what a waste of time it was. Jesus Christ controls history, and God was in business before we got here, and he’ll be in business when we’re long gone. The main thing is that you come to know Christ as your savior, that you put your faith and trust in him by faith. The Bible says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You can do it in your car this morning. You can do it at your home tonight. You can do it at your office tomorrow. Just simply bow your head and tell God the Father you’re believing in the finished work of Christ on the cross. You’re trusting in him to be your savior. That’s it, over and out. This is the will of God that you believe in me whom he has sent, the Lord Jesus Christ said. And what did those disciples do after he left? They went around telling the world that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus was the Messiah, and convincing them through signs and miracles that he sent them to tell them that. Then Paul came to teach the church how to live the Christian life. So there’s so much to learn and so much to understand, and patience is required in all of that. I hope you’ve been listening. I hope you’re learning, and I hope you’ll apply this information to your life. If you have other questions, don’t fail to contact us. We’re right here for you, and we’ll be glad to provide any information that you need. So until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, host of The Flotline, saying thank you for listening, and see you next week, same time, same place.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
