Patience (Eph. 4:2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/1/2019 2:34 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Patience

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:2

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”

 

            We have looked at humility in earlier SD’s and then we learned that gentleness is the outgrowth of humility, and now patience an outgrowth of humility and gentleness.  You can’t have gentleness without humility and you can’t have patience without humility and gentleness.  John MacArthur writes “Makrothumia) patience literally means long-tempered, and is sometimes translated longsuffering.  The patient person endures negative circumstances and never give in to them.”

 

            I suppose that one of the OT people that may come to your mind as having patience is Abraham.  When Abraham was 75 years old God called him to go to what we call the Promised Land and told him that he and his wife Sarah would have a child.  The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Thus having patiently waited, he obtained the promise” (Heb. 6:15).  As mentioned God promised that He would build a great nation from this 75 year old man and his 70 year old wife, but this did not happen until Abraham was 100 years old and Sara was 95 years old.  In the human mind and body this was impossible, and yet Abraham patiently waited and God did as He promised.  Romans 4:20 tells us “Yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.”

 

            Another OT saint we can look at is Noah as God told Noah to build an ark because He was going to destroy the earth, and so it took Noah 120 years to build the ark.  Now what we know is that Noah took 120 years to build a very large ark, and he did it on dry ground, and the other things we know is that it never had rained upon the earth before it rained after Noah had finished the ark. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “In the chronicle of faithful Old Testament saints in the book of Hebrews, Moses’ patient endurance is mentioned twice.  He chose rather ‘to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing of pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.  By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen’ (Heb. 11:25-27).”

 

            There are a few more “saints” we want to look at as we continue our study of patience, but I think we will wait until tomorrow because of the lateness of the hour as I am kind of out of my normal routine due to having something to do this morning.

 

Quotation for Today:  “Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received –fading symbols of honour, trappings of power, but only what you have given:  A full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage” (Francis of Assisi)

3/1/2019 3:00 PM