Patience!

Patience is a virtue,

Possess it if you can.

Found seldom in a woman,

Never in a man.

Well, lets get the picture, you go to Wal-mart and there are three lines open, 4 people in each line, then it is time for a break and 2 cashiers close their line, now the 6 people who were in other lines, now rush to the other to the line you were headed for.

And you lose your patience!

You stop behind a car at a red light, and they are talking or texting on the phone and the light turns green and they still sit there, and it turns red again, and then green and again, but this time you interrupt them with a nice long blast from your horn!!

You lose your patience!

God’s Patience:

Exodus 34:5-7-Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

Psalm 86:15-But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,

Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

Romans 2:4-Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

The best place to learn about patience is from God, us realizing how patience God is with us!!

If God would have only given us one chance to accept Him as Savior, I don’t think there would be very many sitting in Church on Sundays!!

Many of us He gave us chance after chance till one day we accepted what He offered!!

Romans 15:4-6-For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have the scriptures to read, so that they can teach us, that just because we don’t understand what God is doing in a situation does not mean that God does not have a plan, it also teaches us that just because what we have prayed for has hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t!!

It gives us hope to remember that if God has promised it, it will come to pass!

2 Peter 3:9-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.

You hear people say, “Why doesn’t God do something about all the evil in the world?”

If God was to judge the world right now, at this very minute, a lot of people, we love and care about would be sent to hell, but thank God, He give them one more minute, one more day, one more week, one more month, one more year, to come to Him!!

Galatians 5:22-23-But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

These are product’s of the Christian life!

These things are what you are suppose to see in the Christian life!

These are suppose to be evident in our life!!

Ephesians 4:2-with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,

We need to be patient with others, we all do not run the race the same speed, (Some can memorize scripture, some can quote scripture, some can’t, some have read the bible all the way thru, and some are still reading the first chapters). We all don’t start the race at the same place (Some where raised in Christian homes and some where not).

We all don’t have the same experiences, backgrounds, opportunities, abilities, but we all do have one thing in common, we all need patience!

We need to receive patience from others and we need to extend patience to others!!