2 Peter 3:15 NIV
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means
salvation…
What Is It You Really Need?
There is one day that every parent dreads from the
moment a child is born. It is more
feared than the first discussion on “the birds and the bees”, produces greater
anxiety than the anticipation of going into debt to pay for college tuition and
makes parents cringe more than the start of music lessons. It is that first day a parent starts teaching
her child how to drive. It is then that
all those times when you caused your parent grief comes back to haunt you. One friend of mine told me that her sister took
her out to learn how to drive using her mom’s car without permission before she
got a permit and she sideswiped a telephone pole and broke off the mirror. They quietly returned the car to its parking
spot and it took them thirty years before they had the courage to tell their
mom what they did. My dad broke into a
sweat the day he taught me how to drive and his face was white as a sheet when
we got finished. The parent who
patiently endures this traumatizing day of reckoning is superhuman. You find out quickly just what sort of placidity
you actually have when you sit in the passenger seat the first time your
teenager pulls out of the driveway and careens off into traffic. I am certain even the Buddha screamed “watch
out!” the first time he took his daughter driving.
On a scale of 1-10, what level of patience do you
maintain when you are driving…when you are cooking for your mother-in-law…when
someone makes you late…when your children start fighting…when your family
members leave the dishes in the sink for you to wash…when you spend an hour
teaching a co-worker how to do something and you realize she hasn’t paid
attention to you…when the sales clerk forgets to put in your bag the one item
you went to the store to get…when the person sitting next to you on the metro
sneezes in your face…when you lose your keys…when your sister loses your
keys…when someone eats the food you saved in the refrigerator for lunch… Do others see you as patient or easily
perturbed? Is patience one of your
strengths or a weakness of yours?
The New Testament of the Bible insists on patience
as a critical component of a healthy personality. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy
and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12 NIV) Be completely humble and gentle; be
patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2 NIV) In the Old Testament, patience is the sign of
one having wisdom. A patient man has
great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly. (Proverbs
14:29 NIV) The first characteristic of
love is patience. Love
is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV)
Patience does not stand alone as a virtue
though. It requires resistance; a force
acting against it to bring it to life.
To know you have patience, you must face something trying, something that
pushes you. Patience does not come into
existence until it goes up against an adversary. When you are humiliated or ignored or
mistreated or disappointed or kept from asserting your will then there can be
patience but otherwise it is just an idea, a concept or an idealization
grounded in myth. You can say you are
patient but until you “come up against it”, you don’t really know.
The ancient account of Job and his troubles is a
classic example of someone who really did come up against it. What makes the documentation of his personal
experience so crucial for our study of patience is the clear delineation of
what we all face in a world dominated by spiritual forces that are too often
ignored or discounted. The Bible insists
that there is a literal spiritual being that has great power in this universe. Satan is not a metaphor for evil; Satan is
the force behind evil. What we learn
from the documentation found in Job is that Satan has access to God and can go
to Him and ask permission to try and wreck people. In Job’s case, Satan was given permission to attack
Job physically and psychologically.
Satan killed Job’s children, ruined him financially and then made him
endure terrible sores that were painful and debilitating. The terrible suffering of Job continued until
God finally put a halt to it.
There is no patience without suffering of some sort,
whether it is psychological or physical.
Some suffering we bring on ourselves but clearly there is suffering that
Satan has been given permission to inflict on us. When that suffering hits us, we can either be
patient or not. It is up to us. Do we
think the same sort of activity is happening today as it did in Job’s
case? Of course it is. Satan is making life hard on us, putting us
in situations that make it painful and distressing. But we can stand up against them with
patience. Patience is the capacity to weather
the storm, to be bent under the force of the wind but not broken by it. The New Testament term translated patience is
literally “long soul” or “long to passion”.
In other words, one who is patient does not let the passions take over
the personality. Wisdom remains in
control.
There are two levels of patience. The first is just what you can deal with in
your own strength. Some have more
patience than others because of the experiences they have had, the role models
they emulate and just the basic make-up of how they are put together. There is a limit though to the patience any
of us have and when Satan pushes us too far, we fall apart. We get angry, we become depressed, we isolate
ourselves, we use alcohol or drugs to mask the pain, we strike out in revenge,
we engage in sexual immorality or perversion, we abandon our careers, those who
love us and/or the faith we once had.
When our patience is shattered, we come apart in some way that hurts us
or others.
The Bible tells us that one of the psychological
benefits of having God a part of you is that He produces in you patience. But the fruit of the Spirit is …
patience... (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV)
This means there is a certain level of patience that only God can
produce; different than what you will ever naturally possess. It is supernatural patience that belongs to
God that you can have. His patience, which
is available to you is the same patience that enabled Him to endure the Cross
without lashing out at those mocking Him, that allowed Him to speak kindly to
the thief on the cross who had before ridiculed Him, the same patience that
upheld Him when He faced His death.
Only the Holy Spirit can give you God’s patience so
that you aren’t rattled by the sorts of things that shatter the best of human
beings. I once had a friend who was
wrecked by the fire that ruined her house and she took out her anger on her
husband. Her anger destroyed his affection
for her and he left his wife for another woman.
Some things are just too big for you and only God can see you through
them. Go to Christ right now if you wish
and ask Him to anoint you with the Holy Spirit.
He will pour His patience into you if you give yourself over to
Him. The great storms will not overwhelm
you; the earth shattering quakes that topple others will not make you fall. When Christ died to take your sin from you,
He said that you could have the Holy Spirit as a part of you. When our Lord bought you out of your slavery
to sin and the forces of evil in this world, He did so that you would not be
alone to face all this. He comes to you
now. Invite Him to join you. Ask for the Holy Spirit to make His home in
you. Have God’s patience; let the
strength of His personality get you through every trial and difficulty you face
both today…and tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment