Patience is one of those attributes that you cannot learn by reading about it. It’s a quality that can only be acquired by persistent, enduring, practice. And for me, it’s a drill I go over and over again!

The original Webster’s dictionary offers this definition of patience: “the suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation or other evil, with a calm, unruffled temper; endurance without murmuring or fretfulness, from a kind of heroic pride, or from a Christian submission to the divine will.”

Reading this definition, two things really struck me. First, “endurance without murmuring.”

I get so frustrated sitting in a traffic jam, counting the wasted minutes when I could have been doing something useful! Yet, what an opportunity for me to choose to quench the inner fumes—and use the delay to work on my patience!

The second thing that really hit me was, “a Christian submission to the divine will.” How many times are we placed in a difficult position, or forced to deal with an “impossible” situation? Or perhaps, an “impossible” person?

These circumstances are always opportunities to grow in patience—or to learn to submit to God’s providential will, and often, to minister in some special or unique way.

Is your patience being tested today? Great! Remember, love is patient. (Cor. 13:4)

The Lord is training you toward godliness, and godliness is moving toward perfect love.

With so much work to be done, He is really wanting to work this quality into your character now—to perfect your love, and with it to transform the world around you for His glory!

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 2 Peter 1:5-7

–by George Whitten

3 Responses to Patience

  1. I surrender says:

    Your posts are always timely and meaningful. This one especially hits home today because my heart is so broken and still has an arrow in it over a failed marriage in our family. Just learned that a couple whom we love dearly love has gotten a divorce and one of them has already remarried I am the parent of one of them and had no idea this was coming. So I am placed in an extremely difficult position. Ive already had a few days to grieve and tell my heart I’ve got to go forward and continue to love them both and trust God. What the Lord has revealed to me is that our marital position (single, married, divorced, remarried or widowed) in life doesn’t have anything to do with his love for us, and it should not have any thing to do with my love for anyone either. I want to Love unconditionally like Him!

  2. Clement Ng says:

    So timely, thank you very much for sharing. Well wishes and love from Thailand 😇

  3. Bianca Burnett says:

    Amen. I sure needed this today. God is speaking to me. I thank God for using you.

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