The verse that jumped out at me today was verse 18, A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel. This is the very thing I’ve been working on lately. My first instinct is to get fired up about something. However, my first response should be to gain understanding and patiently address the issue. Being hot-tempered does nothing to stop a quarrel, it simply escalates to the point where nothing can be resolved.

It is hard to wait on God sometimes. We want Him to provide us with what we want and when we want it. It’s easy to get bogged down in the waiting and not be productive. In verse 7 it says, Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. This verse is specifically talking about Christ’s second coming, but the verse also applies to waiting on the Lord in general. Whether we are waiting on healing, our finances to get better, or that relationship; we must still be patient and wait on God’s timing! Further, there is plenty of work that still needs to be done and we don’t need to sit around doing nothing. We should still be productive!