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Galatians 5:22-23 – ESV
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Y’all ain’t ready for this.
Today it’s all about patience – longsuffering for you KJV’ers.
So we all know that one of the attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit is patience.
And we all know the cliche we’ve used on a daily basis:
Lord, give me patience but hurry up!
But as I was studying for this post, I found some interesting information on patience. And I couldn’t wait to share it with you! Patience is a tricky thing. Well, at least I think so.
The Greek word makrothymia (patience) is defined as this:
1) patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance
2) patience, forbearance, longsuffering, slowness in avenging wrongs
Don’t worry. I’ll get back to those great words in just a bit, but I want to also you show you a synonym for makrothymia – hypomonē. Get this definition: the temper which does not easily succumb under suffering.
I don’t know about you but I think I’ve always thought about patience from a parental standpoint and from a “wait for the big thing to happen” standpoint. But if you look at a few of the definitions above, there’s a lot more to it than that.
A. Lot.
I never considered it patience to be slow to avenge wrongs. That’s huge. Let’s cross-reference it with a passage from 1 Corinthians:
Love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; 1 Corinthians 13:4
Our word patience is back – makrothymia
1) to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart
a) to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles
b) to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others
1) to be mild and slow in avenging
2) to be longsuffering, slow to anger, slow to punish
When we are full of Love (the first attribute in our study), we will be sure to have help in display the other attributes as well.
Let’s look at a few more Scriptures on patience:
Proverbs 19:11 – A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 – The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.
Ouch. Don’t know about you but that sure hits home to me. If you look up the word “glory” you’ll see that it is defined as an “attribute of God.” So basically it’s an attribute of God to over look an offense.
Wow.
Colossians 3:12 – Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Yet another passage above to clothe ourselves with patience.
Seems like it’s kinda important, eh? Oh, I know. It’s not the easiest thing to be – especially when you’ve been hurt, wronged or feel like you’re being held back from something. I get that. But He wants us to clothe ourselves in patience – and practice it.
Practice Patience.
Practice, practice, practice.
I think the ultimate example of patience is seen in 2 Peter 3:9,15 (NLT) when Peter shares about Christ’s 2nd coming:
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent… And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—
Isn’t that amazing?!
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Whatcha think about patience?
Is it something that comes naturally to you?
About Mary Hess
