INTRODUCTION
Patience is a virtue, one that is essential for healthy living. Its vital role in every human relationship has made it a subject of intense scrutiny by all kinds of professionals. Yet, in spite of all the extra attention, PATIENCE remains a very scarce commodity in our fast-paced world.
1. PATIENCE BRINGS THE BLESSING OF GOD
The writer of Hebrews 11:39-40 says, ‘These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.’ Their patience and perseverance ended in more waiting. What is the plan that God has prepared for us? What is the ‘something better’? Who can say for sure? His purpose will not be entirely consummated until Jesus splits the skies and history is finished. And then we will know the end of all truth.
God never lies; all that He has promised will come to be after we have waited long enough. Patience will at last expose us to glory immeasurable, for patience is the key to the final blessing of God.
2. PATIENCE, LIVING BY GOD’S TIMETABLE
Prayers are voiced from the perspective of our timeframe, but they are all answered from God’s timetable. In 1 Samuel 1:9-28, Hannah knew this great truth of prayer, the length of time between our asking and God’s supply is patience. Hannah received exactly what she had asked for. But the key to her blessing lay in her steadfastness.
Jesus is a wonderful model of patience. He had only a few years to minister on this earth, yet He never worried that He would not have time to accomplish all that God had planned for Him. He trusted God’s perfect timetable.
3. PATIENCE, THE ART OF WAITING ON GOD
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. – 2 Peter 3:8-9
There is an art required in patience – aligning our finite watches with God’s external clock. We do not have unlimited time to accomplish His plan for our lives. Therefore we must, as the psalmist suggests, ‘number our days aright’ – Psalm 90:12. First, we must pace ourselves so that we do not live frantically, and then we must schedule the appointments of our lives so that every earthly moment yields some heavenly product.
Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 1:4-9
God has called us to wait. So we practise patience. But God has given us gifts to equip us to fulfill His purposes as we wait. Through His graciousness, we learn patience, and through our exercise of that patience, we fulfill His purposes.
4. PATIENCE AND MY RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST.
Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. – Revelation 3:10.
Christ reminds the church of Philadelphia that patient endurance under trial is the key to God’s special protection. Those who endure hurt with patience are behaving like Christ Jesus. He notices our pain, and walks with us through every step of the suffering. Just as God the Father felt every pain of His Son, so our Saviour feels our hurt and suffers with us every step of the way.
Indeed, the Psalmist in Psalm 39:5 is right: ‘You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath’. During these fast-tumbling years, let us practise a determined patience and decide that these years will all be used for Christ. If we focus on using our time to develop our relationship with Him, we will never look at the time as wasted, for we will someday have eternity to reap the benefits of our time with Him now. A great hymn by Charles Thomas Studd sums up the attitude of a life filled with patience: ‘Only one life, twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.’
5. PATIENCE THE SLOWLY ACQUIRED VIRTUE
God’s historical motif in Nehemiah 9:30 is patience. He was patient with the Israelites when: they became arrogant, disobeyed His commandments, sinned against His ordinances, turned their back on God’s desires for them and became stiff-necked and refused to listen. Through all of their disobedience, the patience of God waited on Israel to return His love and behave like His children.
Patience is not a flaw in God; it is the glory of God. If God can extend His all-important, worldwide agenda by pacing Himself so as to save all, perhaps the practice of patience would do us all good.
6. PATIENCE, THE UNHURRIED VIRTUE
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. – Matthew 18:21-22
Peter felt magnanimous in suggesting seven-fold forgiveness as a worldwide standard. But Jesus reminded him that a better standard would be 77 times. The idea is that when we get to 43 times, we will probably quit counting. We may then become more like God in our willingness to forgive freely without credits and debits, without a calculator.
Patience is an unhurried virtue, it waits and forgives and waits and forgives. Patience is the virtue that demonstrates that we are fully in touch and at ease with the purposes of God in our lives.
7. PATIENCE, THE WAIT FOR WHAT GOD PROMISES
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” – Luke 2:25-32.
Simeon sings, ‘My eyes have seen your salvation.’ In this statement is the realised product of patience. God has many things to show us when the time is right. Until then, the wait itself is wonderful.
CONCLUSION
It is only through the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart that we can bear the fruit of patience. The hymn below by Thomas Gibbons summarizes patience for us in a profound way:
- Patience, O, ‘tis a grace divine, set from the God of peace and love,
That leans upon our Father’s arm, as through the wilds of life we rove.
- By patience, we serenely bear, the troubles of our mortal state,
And wait, contented, our discharge, nor think our glory comes too late.
- O, for this grace to aid us on, and arm with fortitude the breast,
Till, life’s tumultuous voyage o’er, we reach the shores of endless rest.
- Faith into vision shall resign, hope shall in full fruition die,
And patience in possession end, in the bright worlds of bliss on high
Culled from: Fruit of the Spirit Bible.
Stay blessed!
By Dr Joyce Aryee, the author
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