“By your patience possess your souls”
Luke 21:19
We don't think about patience possessing our souls do we but let's see how the word of God defines patience for us?
Patience is defined as being steadfast, having constancy, having endurance, sustaining and persevering.
It’s an individual not swerved from his/her deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and remains piety and devoted even in the greatest trials and sufferings.
In sickness, good health, richer, poorer, good times and bad times you remain faithful through patience.
I don’t know about you but I see patience encompassed in this brilliant warm orb of light filled with other equally excellent everlasting elements.
So what are these wondrous equally excellent luxuries that encircle and interweave godly patience- which enrich and cradle the soul with peace?
Well they are listed in what love is in our bible...
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
So knowing patience is love, where does love come from? God is love. God is our source of patience and where we draw our patience from.
“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” 1 John 4:16
We see that patience comes with trusting and putting one’s self “in” God’s care.
Ever hear someone they say, “Don’t ask God for more patience because you will run into more problems”? But problems, circumstances, understandings are just what some of us need to put ourselves in God’s care and love. Did some of you come to God because of a troubled mind and heart? Yes problems are just want some of us need to really understand that God is in control and we don’t have control no matter how much we worry, fear, or try to micromanage. The world is going to do what it is going to do but God remains our steady rock and strong tower. He is our source of patience through everything life throws at us.
“We can rejoice, to when we run into problems and trials, for we know they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:3-4
Who is truly blessed.... really? Thinking about this statement and how it relates to patience. “God blesses those who realize their need for him for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.” Matthew 5:3
Seeking God’s patience is to see our need in him and putting ourselves in his care where that patience from God can manifest itself in our life. Patience cannot be manifested in any other way. Patience isn't ignoring someone's irritating behavior and calling it patience. Patience is putting ourselves in God's care to love those people who you find irritating and even difficult.
We all need God to encourage and assist us and give us strength to carry on in the faith everyday -some days of this life need more patience then others but in all those days we must put ourselves in his care.
Our knower is positioned in the right spot, knowing God is with us no matter what we face. It isn't the problem or circumstances we focus on but the solution who is God.
We face what there is to face for God’s love to be made real
and tangible and all doubt to be discarded and thrown away. We face what there is to face for God’s
love to make us whole. We face
what there is to face for God’s loves to set us free. We face what there is to face for God’s love to give
us life and life more abundantly.
“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.” 1 John 4:16-19
I think the times we fear and fret and become bothered is because we have not placed ourselves in God's perfect love or taken the time to do so, would you agree?
In God's care where we grow in a greater "understanding" of God's love which manifests itself in greater ways beyond our natural tendencies and ways of thinking.
"O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. And I have revealed you to them and will keep on revealing you. I will do this so this so that your love for me may be in them and I in them." John 17:25-26
I believe those who place their life in God’s hand -has the same effect as the seeds that fall on the good ground.
“But the ones that fell on the good ground
are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and
bear fruit with patience. “
Luke 8:15
“But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.” Galatians 5:22
Patience is about letting God take possession of your life. We are only "prosperous" in the riches of God if we stop being captive to the things in this life and be captive to God. For we can experience the riches of God in fact we all experience many of God's riches everyday without even giving it much thought but we never become "prosperous" in God's riches because we either don't trust God or trust God enough.
Remember faith takes trust in God's love as a child draws encouragement and comfort from a loving parent. And we please God as we draw from his love. Patience it’s not about the "emphasis" being on you but letting go of you and letting God do through you. May we as Christians live in God’s encompassing patient peace/love to reach the world around us so they may be saved and set free through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - who is the only way to Heaven. In Jesus Name Amen
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