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Passionate Patience

January 28, 2019

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
– Romans 8:25

At the end of each year, I spend time in prayer asking God for one word to best describe what He wants me to focus on during the upcoming year. This year’s word is “Patience” and normally getting a word like patience would be somewhat contraindicated because of my personality. Fortunately for both my sanity and productivity, our pastor spent December preaching a sermon series titled, “Wait for it” that looked at patience as an activity filled with anticipation and concentration.

Alongside my own word for the year, the BBT staff combine our individual words into a sentence for the year. Our combined words create: Patiently Ready – Gracefully Present.

Developing Leadership

The word for the year is one of my most effective habits of leadership. When I use it as a filter to listen to God through His Word, it takes on a life of its own. The Bible is the first of BBT’s four promises because we believe the Bible should always be the preeminent source for developing leadership within ourselves and others. My 2018 word was “essential”, and I found God using “His Word” to activate me to apply His Word through the prism of my single word.

Passionate Patience

Eugene Peterson’s The Message adds the adverb “passionate” to patience in Romans. A yearlong focus on developing passionate patience as a leader will expand my leadership. But I also want to see God’s Kingdom expand through my leadership by taking God’s Word working in and through me. To see that happen, I need to create routine times for reading and studying His Word to apply its truths into my life and leadership.

There are many effective habits for successful leadership, but no other habit has the exponential potential to transform my leadership than the Bible.

My Word + His Word

My word for the year is patience. When I take my word plus His Word and apply it to my life in 2019, I will not only grow as a leader but also can expect God to use my growth as a leader to expand His Kingdom.

Do you have a word for this year? Do you have a plan for taking His Word and applying it to your year?

Robert Millar

Robert joined the BBT team as the Executive Director/CEO in June 2017. Robert was born and raised in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Robert brings 22 years of international ministry and leadership experience to BBT from his various roles in ministry. He shared Christ with his own people in Northern Ireland for seven years before God called him as a missionary to Munich, Germany where he served for almost a decade. It was in Munich that he met his American wife, Bethany, who was also serving on a mission team in Munich. In 2011 God moved Bethany and Robert back to her home town of St. Louis, where Robert served as College Minister at Washington University in St. Louis and then as an Executive Pastor in a local church. Bethany and Robert have a young son and enjoy spending their time with Bethany’s family as well as their spiritual family at U-City Family Church.