By
Bill Brandstatter
A preacher I once knew had a sign on his
desk that read “Lord, give me patience, and give it to me right now.” That is
the way we often are with patience. I heard, growing up, the statement, “Don’t ever
pray for patience.” Yet, the Bible teaches learning patience can be beneficial
to us. It is the learning of it that often gives us problems.
I have often considered myself to be a very
patient person, yet during the last three months, I have had to learn it even
more. People have told me to have more patience. James wrote: “Knowing the
testing of your faith produces patience; but let patience have its perfect
work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4
NKIV) According to James, learning patience can make us more complete as a
Christian. He also states we should pray for wisdom in chapter 1:5. My understanding
is that he is referring to wisdom to deal with trials and to learn patience.
The Bible gives us examples of patience.
God is the ultimate example. Peter tells us, “When once the Divine
longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in
which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water.” (1 Pet. 3:20)
Peter also tells us more about God’s
patience. His patience is for our benefit. In 2 Pet. 3:9, he writes: “The
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is
longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should
come to repentance.”
James tells us the prophets are examples of
patience: “My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the
Lord, as an example of suffering and patience” (James 5:10 NKJV). When we
think about how long many of the prophets preached and what all they went
through we can learn from their examples.
Job was a perfect example of patience. He
lost everything and still did not charge God foolishly. (Job 1:22) At the end
of the book of Job, he was rewarded for his faithfulness and his patience. The
Bible says, “And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his
friends. Indeed, the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” (Job
42:10)
Let us learn to be patient. It doesn’t come
naturally. God may be putting us through a trial in our lives to help us learn
patience. If so, it will make us better people to deal with the affairs of this
life. It will help us in teaching others. It will better prepare us for heaven,
our ultimate goal.
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