God's Patience

 

    God is patient with all people.  He gives you the time to make decisions.  He tells you what He expects, but waits on you to decide if you will comply, how you will comply, or if you will comply in obedience.  You know He is patient because He could have destroyed humanity whenever He wanted.  He allows you to live in your sin.  He is longsuffering to show you what love really is and how you can be loved the way you were meant to be loved.

    God is patient because He has held back the judgment that the world is destined to endure.  He is giving everyone a chance to turn away from their sins and follow Jesus.  He is waiting to forgive those whom ask to be forgiven with true repentance in their heart.

    God's patience reveals mercy.  Maybe you have been enduring His correction to get you where you need to be and now He is giving you peace.  Maybe you are coming out of a trial and are finding healing from a long hidden emotional or spiritual wound.  Maybe He is giving you a time of rest after working diligently for Him for a long time.  His mercy for you is personalized according your relationship with Him and needs.  

    Mercy is not getting what you deserve which is different from grace where you do get what you do not deserve.  Once reveals how you fall short of God's standards and the other reveals God's unconditional love.  You see this in your life.  It is revealed in your prayer life and walk with God.  The closer you lean into Him the more clearly you can see it.

    It is ignorant to call God impatient, intolerant, or uncaring.  It is fooling to demand that God meet you at your level and be okay with your lifestyle.  God is not going to change who He is for you.  He is showing you that your life is better if you change to His standard.  He is good because He gives you time and all the chances to live a life of faith following Jesus.  He is patient because He restrains His power.  He does this because He loves you.

    God wants you to understand what patience really is.  Patience is an active use of strength in the spiritual world. It is not just waiting.  It is actively choosing not to act and to restrain what you could do.  It is proof of strength, not weakness.  It is also a gift of the Holy Spirit where some people can have a supernatural ability of patience to face trials and help the church grow and develop.  

    Pray that you are able to see God's patience in your life.  Ask Him to help you be patient when you are spiritually ready to go through trials.  Patience is active which means it has to be worked out.  To workout active spiritual aspects means you have to go through things.  It is important that you do pray to have them and to build them up, but the timing is not always right.  If you are spiritually beat up, then allow God to give you rest and heal you so you can be strong enough to endure.

Exodus 34:5-7, Numbers 14:17-19, Judges 6:17-40, 7:9-11, Psalm 86:14-17, Isaiah 30:18, Romans 2:1-4, 9:20-24, 15:5-6, Galatians 5:22-23, Colossians 1:11-14, 1 Timothy 1:15-17, 2 Peter 3:8-10