“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast
love” (Psalm 103:8).
We all know of God’s patience but have we thought about how it should impact
our approach to life. Preachers often launch into eloquent discourse on the
nature of God with a view to heightening His transcendence, which is
laudable, but forget to explain how it affects my behavior on Tuesday.
Case in point – God’s patience makes Him slow to anger. He doesn’t rush to
judge people who offend Him (like I do). He is gracious with them and
abounds in love and grace rather than cutting them off.
In Genesis 15:16 God explained to Abraham that one reason his descendents
would remain in captivity for four centuries is that it would take that long
for His wrath against the Amorites to reach the “boiling over” point. The
Amorites were the pagan Canaanites occupying the Promised Land. Their
wickedness was beyond belief; nevertheless, God was determined to put up
with it for 400 years before moving against them. Unbelievable!
So how like God are you? Someone turns you down twice for lunch and you
never ask them again. Ever. Someone hurts your feelings a couple of times
and you end the friendship. Someone takes advantage of you a few times and
you’re tempted to hustle them off to a guillotine.
Truth is, when God saves us, He imparts certain of His attributes to us, and
one of those is patience. The Holy Spirit produces God’s patience in us as
part of the fruit in Galatians 5:22-23. James says that the trials we face
are designed to produce patience in us. In Colossians 3:12 Paul instructs
us to – ‘Put on then, as God’s chosen ones. compassion, kindness, humility,
meekness, and patience.’
We should ALL radiate Christ, and ask of each other: “Ye who love me, pray
for me in this.”
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”