The Virtue of Patience

READ: EXODUS 34:5-7; MATTHEW 18:23-35; ROMANS 2:4

Patience is a virtue we all need. It took me many years to realize my need for this virtue. This realization came to me when I had a misunderstanding with someone I was helping. She was not willing to take a step I thought was right for her, and so I became impatient with her. My friends tried to advise me on how to handle the issue patiently, but I just felt I could not do so. I even started thinking of withdrawing the little help I was giving her.

But then one day as I was reading the Word of God, the truth dawned on me that God is patient with us all. I thought of the many times I have not done what God wanted me to do, and yet He has been patient with me and forgiven me, like it says in Romans 2:4, “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”

As I had seen God’s kindness and patience lead me to repentance, I also decided to treat this person the way God has treated me, believing that God is patient with her too and that His kindness and patience would lead her to repentance. And so our relationship was restored.

God calls us to be patient with one another, and through His Holy Spirit, who lives inside Christians, God empowers us to extend the same loving patience to others that He extends to us. • Enid Adah Nyinomujuni

• Can you think of a time you struggled to be patient with someone? How could resting in God’s patience toward us make it a bit easier to be patient with others?

• Do you ever struggle to be patient with yourself? God is incredibly patient with you, and He loves you more than you can imagine. Scripture is full of stories of God’s people refusing to obey Him, getting themselves in trouble, and then being rescued by God anyway. He never stops pursuing us with love and mercy—which is why Jesus, God in flesh, came to die and rise from the grave to make the way for us to be with God. And if we know Jesus by faith, His Holy Spirit lives in us, helping us extend His loving patience to others. So let us sit in awe of God’s amazing patience with us, even as we ask Him to help us be patient with others.

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2 (NIV)