Tonight our Bible discussion was about patience (forbearance/ long-suffering), another fruit of the Spirit. Patience is not something most of us find easy; it obviously requires a change of attitude and trust in God to believe that His will will be done in our lives, even when it doesn’t look that way! We have to put off the old self and put on the new self if our attitudes are to change.
We looked at examples of God’s patience (Rom 2:4) and at the patience many Old Testament heroes demonstrated in waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled. God is prepared to wait a lifetime (as the thief on the cross shows us!) and we often have to wait far longer than we want. Patience should never be an excuse for inaction, but equally we must not take action simply to ‘hurry’ God along (as Abraham did after waiting for ten years by sleeping with Hagar… in actual fact, he had to wait 25 years before Isaac, the promised son, was born.) If we give up waiting, we risk missing out on God’s blessings (think of the disciples waiting for the Holy Spirit after the resurrection), so we do well to let God develop patience in us.