One thing that I would often love to do as a young child was to set up a bunch of domino tiles in a long, long line, and when they were all set up I took my finger and gave the first one just the tiniest of pushes, and they all went falling down.
But as you will know if you have ever done this yourself, getting to that point where you get to knock them all down takes a bit of time, as well as patience. You must be extremely careful that you do not accidently bump even one of those dominos, or else you will soon be setting them all up once again. But if you can endure that careful preparation and remain patient in the setting up process, the end result will be extremely satisfying and rewarding.
And that is what the word “patience” means. Willing to wait if necessary and not losing one’s temper while waiting. It also means to be constant in pursuit or exertion; persevering; calmly diligent; physically able to suffer or bear.
The normal desire for a person is to have something now, immediately. When someone looks at themselves in a mirror and says, “Ugh, I need to lose some weight,” they want all of it gone immediately. But anyone who has lost a lot of their body weight knows that it does not happen overnight. It takes time and patience to stick with the exercise and dieting to achieve their end goal.
Patience is a quality that we need to possess as Christians. If someone does something evil or bad towards us, we need to take those sufferings patiently, just as our Lord did when He was crucified. If someone sins against us, we need to be filled with patience and mercy, just as our Lord is and has always been towards us.
1 Thessalonians 5:14, “…be patient toward all men.”
In order to overcome temptations, we need patience. When we are tempted to do wrong, we need to resist that urge to give in to it, because it is through the resisting of temptation that we can overcome it.
James 1:2-4 “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
Parents need a great deal of patience, as young children have a habit of repeating things over and over. They like to hear songs over and over again, until it is practically burned into the parents mind. They also have a habit of “pushing their limit” by doing something repeatedly, even if they have been told to stop doing it. In order for a parent to endure this, they require a very important quality: patience.
Even though many of us are technically “adults”, we too have a tendency to revert back to this kind of childish behavior of pushing our limits. We repeatedly do wrong things. We constantly fail and make mistakes, but Jesus shows us great mercy and patience by forgiving us when we come to Him for that forgiveness. We need to display that exact same patience to others when they wrong us.
Luke 6:36 “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”
Do you have this quality? Just like when setting up those dominos, can you be filled with patience?
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 