Oh, how I wish I had more patience. Whether it's loosing those extra kilos or waiting for the right person in your life or even waiting for promotion at work place. It requires lot of patience. I’m prone to impatience. I can’t honestly blame this merely on my temperament or in this fast moving world of everything being so instant. I’m not sure why “Love is patient” is the first thing in the list in 1 Corinthians 13. Forget the rest of his list for a moment. God has been teaching me to be patient. Waiting patiently is so hard. Here are few things on patience.
Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Impatience is a fruit of selfishness. Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others. Love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved. Love is patient because patience is a dying to selfishness.
We are to be:
• “Patien[tly] bearing with one another in love,” (Ephesians 4:2)
• “Patient with them all [the idle, fainthearted, and weak]” (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
• “Reprov[ing], rebuk[ing], and exhort[ing], with complete patience” (2 Timothy 4:2)
• “Patient in tribulation” (Romans 12:12)
• “Patiently endur[ing]…sufferings” (2 Corinthians 1:6)
• “Patiently enduring evil” (2 Timothy 2:24)
• “Imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12)
• “Still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7)
• “Patient…until the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7)
We are to be patient with people, pain, evil, and God.
Patience requires both faith and humility. It requires that whenever things go differently than we wish, we believe that God is working all things for good, that he will complete all the good things He begins and that we can trust Him.
Ultimately, love is patient because God is patient!
Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Impatience is a fruit of selfishness. Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others. Love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved. Love is patient because patience is a dying to selfishness.
We are to be:
• “Patien[tly] bearing with one another in love,” (Ephesians 4:2)
• “Patient with them all [the idle, fainthearted, and weak]” (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
• “Reprov[ing], rebuk[ing], and exhort[ing], with complete patience” (2 Timothy 4:2)
• “Patient in tribulation” (Romans 12:12)
• “Patiently endur[ing]…sufferings” (2 Corinthians 1:6)
• “Patiently enduring evil” (2 Timothy 2:24)
• “Imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12)
• “Still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7)
• “Patient…until the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7)
We are to be patient with people, pain, evil, and God.
Patience requires both faith and humility. It requires that whenever things go differently than we wish, we believe that God is working all things for good, that he will complete all the good things He begins and that we can trust Him.
Ultimately, love is patient because God is patient!
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