Attributes of Love by MOPS InternationalSample

Love is Patient

Our modern world is not a friendly setting for living with patience. We’ve grown insistent on the instant. Our connection to information provides answers in an instant. Our online purchases leave no mystery for when the package will arrive. Our kitchen gadgets and favorite recipes now make dinner in a matter of minutes.

There is certainly value to some of what feels like “gained time”, but perhaps it calls us to look closer at what we expect of ourselves and the people around us. Have our hearts even grown tired of waiting on God because taking direction from another source feels immediate?

Has this Instant Pot culture curated hearts that leave us impatient with our children, spouses, friends, family and strangers? Has our fast-answer society hardened the soil of our hearts and made us less flexible to receive the blessing of watching something grow slowly?

Love in its truest form—the person and life of Christ—gives us a perfect model of patience. When the men and women following Him did not understand His message, when the righteous religious leaders looked down on the way He served, when the crowds condemned and crucified Him, Jesus showed perfect patience. So how do we become more like Him? How do we love in a way that extends the same patience to both loved ones and strangers?

In Luke 8, Jesus talked about a farmer who went out to scatter seed. Verse 15 says, But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop (NIV).This seed is the Word of God, which is used by the Holy Spirit in our lives to bring about the good fruit listed in Galatians 5:22-23. Patience and perseverance start with good soil, a soft soul. They are made possible when we have cultivated a desire to do the will of God.

Consider this:

Maybe your heart is like the path in Luke 8:5, where some of the seed was scattered and trampled on. Have others walked all over you to the point that all you see are their footprints, putting you on edge, leaving you impatient and hopeless for a fruitful life? Is your heart like the rocky ground where as soon as something sprouts it quickly dies because you’ve neglected to find water(v. 6)? Pray today and ask God to begin softening the soil of your heart so the seeds of truth and promises of God can take root.