Patience

Hello everyone,

How are you doing today? I hope well and bubbling in the Lord.

Primary Text

“… be patient toward all men.” 1 Thessalonians 5v14 (KJV)

“… be very patient with everybody [always keeping your temper].” 1 Thessalonians 5v14 (AMP)

“… Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.” 1 Thessalonians 5v14-15 (MSG)

Beloved, can you say without a shadow of doubt that God is patient with you? Perhaps with your weaknesses, or with the continual prayer points over the same issues, or just comforting you, or listening to you or waiting for you as you get over something or to respond to Him on something. Indeed God is very patient with us. Isaiah 30v18 (NLT) says “So the LORD must wait for you to come to Him so He can show you His love and compassion. For the LORD is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for His help.” Romans 2v4 (NLT) tells us “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” Our God is indeed a patient God. As children of God, we need to be as well. 2 Timothy 2v24 (NLT) exhorts that “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people.” 1 Thessalonians 5v14 resonated with me very recently when I found myself getting impatient and irritable. But we know love isn’t irritable, touchy, fretful, resentful, or easily provoked (1 Corinthians 13v5), and the first thing love is described to be in 1 Corinthians 13v4 is patient (suffers/endures long). Beloved, let us be patient with each other. We are all different and have different experiences. We may rub each other the wrong way, but let us be accepting and loving of each other as God loved and accepts us. We are not only told to be patient with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, but toward all men. The fantastic thing as we see in Galatians 5v22 is that patience (an even temper) is included in “the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] … so you can choose to yield to the Spirit of God and walk in patience.

Supplementary Text

“If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.] Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another.” Galatians 5v25-26 (AMP)

Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your patience towards us. O God, help us to be patient in every way, and under every circumstance, in Jesus name, amen.