Patience

Success seldom comes quickly with God's people. 

Abraham was seventy-five when God first promised him offspring (Genesis 12:4, 7) and one hundred when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). 

Moses was a shepherd for forty years and wandered in the wilderness for forty more until coming to the edge of the promised land.

If we are to succeed in life and God's kingdom, we must have the fruit of the Spirit called patience.

Give What You Have Received

"Patience" translates makrothumia, which literally means to be "long- or large-tempered." 

It can be rendered, "to be longsuffering, patiently enduring under injuries inflicted by others." 

God displays such patience with us:

• He "is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
• "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Psalm 103:8). The Old Testament repeats this affirmation four more times.
• "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life" (1 Timothy 1:15–16). God was patient even with Paul, the murderer of his people. He is, therefore, patient with you, no matter what you've done.

Now he calls us to display his patience with each other. 

Paul prayed for the Colossians to be "strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy" (Colossians 1:11). 

If you'll make Paul's intercession yours, the Holy Spirit will answer your prayer today.

Apply the lesson

• Recount where you’ve been impatient in the last week. (Ask for forgiveness from God or others if necessary.)
• Recount when you exercised patience this week. Why were you patient in those circumstances versus the instances where you were impatient? What was similar? What was different?
• Why is patience one quality of a civil person? Put another way: How does patience cause an uncivil person to react?
• Pray that God would stir your gratefulness for his patience with you the next time you’re tempted to be impatient with someone else.