Think of just how patient God was with Jonah. We know the story, but what is amazing to me is that the whole time Jonah ran from God, he knew that God was patient! Look at what he says in Jonah 4:1-2: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, and said, ‘Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.’” Jonah knew this was who the God of patience is!

Paul reminds Timothy and every preacher to “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). Sometimes we expect people in the assembly or new believers to get it overnight, but what we forget is just how long it took us to get it and just how patient God was with us!

We have all experienced the patience of God in our lives. Sometimes we even tell others, “Be patient with me; God isn’t finished with me yet.” The funny thing is, we want others to be patient with us, but we’re not always so willing to be patient with others! But if we are filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit, patience, or longsuffering, will be one of the evidences of such control (Gal. 5:22).

We are exhorted in Ephesians 4:2-3, “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” If we are motivated by the love that has been poured out in us, then it ought to be displayed. One of the things we read of in the “love chapter” (1 Cor. 13) is that “love suffers long.”

Paul knew just how important this patience and longsuffering are, and he mentions them over and over in his writings to the people of God. In Colossians 1:9-11 he prayed, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” Latter in the same book he says, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Col 3:12-13).

Maybe one of the reasons we have so many broken relationships, so many problems in families, and so many problems in the assemblies is that we’ve lost sight of just how patient the God of patience is! Maybe this is one of the reasons we’re so quick to discard and disregard one another!

Anchor For Today:
May we view Him more and more as the God of patience, and may He help us to display this same patience toward one another!