What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient?
Job 6:11
Today we being our discussion on the fourth Fruit of the Spirit, patience. In Greek, the word used in Galatians 5:22 is “Makrothemea” which is better translated “long-suffering.” For today’s verse I chose a verse from the book of Job. We all know the story of Job—He was a very successful man, with a great family, and a great wealth of possessions. In the first two chapters of the book of Job, Satan asks God if Satan can afflict Job with great tribulations, taunting God that Satan can turn Job away from God, that Job only loves God because Job is successful. God allows Satan to test Job. Satan afflicts Job with horrific tribulations—loss of wealth, health and family. Job laments his losses, but never loses his faith in God. Eventually he is rewarded by God for his long-suffering.
Many times in life we need patience to endure long tribulations. And we ask ourselves the same question that Job asked, “and what is my end that I should ‘suffer long?’” This question is asked by many who suffer serious illnesses, particularly at the end of life. People suffer long through painful treatments. That have to show great patience and endurance.
Of course, we know what the end is, that we are being patient and suffering long for. It is salvation. It is sometimes easy to forget this, particularly when suffering seems like it will never end, when we’ve reached our last nerve as far as patience is concerned. This is why patience is a Fruit of the Spirit—because we need to grace of the Holy Spirit to endure long suffering. We need the grace of the Holy Spirit to foster patience within us.
We have already discussed St. Paul’s treatise on love, from I Corinthians 13. It is interesting to note that in I Corinthians 13:4, where St. Paul first describes love saying “love is patient,” the word here is also “makrothemea” meaning “love suffers long.” This means that “suffering” is part of love. We not only love our spouses and our children during the good times, but true love is to love them in the bad times. It is the same with our relationship to God—we love Him not only during good times but during the bad ones as well. This is a defining feature of true Christianity—to love God and to love others not only when all is going well, but when all is not going well.
To cultivate patience is to showing a willingness to “suffer long,” to stay in the game even when you are losing and losing big. To be “complete” as a Christian, there has to be an ability to be resilient in setbacks and to remain patient when things don’t go well. It also means to be patient and let God’s plan unfold in His way, in His time.
We’ve all done “connect the dots” when we were kids. I’m a “connect the dots” person in my life. I like to see where things are going, and when I can “connect the dots” on events in my life, it is easy to find meaning and reason behind the things that happen to me. I once lost a job and couldn’t understand why I lost that job. After some time had passed, I had the opportunity to get a different job. I “connected the dots” and accepted that maybe God allowed me to lose a job in order to get a better job. After a while, I realized I wasn’t going to get the other job either. This left me scratching my head a little more. Eventually, I got the first job back. I ended up exactly where I started. I still don’t understand why that happened. Perhaps God allowed it to happen so that someone else would learn, or maybe so that I would learn. I definitely “suffered long” because of this, but I never lost faith in God or in other people. Even when I couldn’t connect the dots, I didn’t drop out of the faith. And so waiting for God’s plan to unfold in His time can take patience. It also comes with reward, as patience helps us grow in the Spirit, which brings us closer to God, which ultimately leads us to salvation.
There are many instances where we suffer long—waiting to find the person we want to marry, waiting for our business to be successful, waiting for a financial windfall, waiting for someone else to come around to our way of thinking, waiting to get a medical diagnosis, waiting for an illness to pass and many other examples. How we “suffer long” determines greatly when we develop the fruit of patience. And since patience is interconnected to the other fruit, how we suffer long affects how we love, it affects our joy, our peace and our patience.
Lean on God when times are tough. And look at tough times as times to grow in patience as well as the other fruit.
Lord, thank You for the many positive things that happen in my life. (list some of them) Help me to be patient with the things that are not great in my life (list some of them). Help me to be patient in time of tribulation. And be patient with me when I act like less of a Christian than I should. Amen.
Be patient with whatever is less than perfect in your life today!
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