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Patience: The suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation or other evil, with a calm, unruffled temper; endurance without murmuring or fretfulness. patience may spring from constitutional fortitude, from a kind of heroic pride, or from Christian submission to the divine will. A calm temper which bears evils without murmuring or discontent. The act or quality of waiting long for justice or expected good without discontent. Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Matthew 18:26. Perseverance; constancy in labor or exertion. He learnt with patience and with meekness taught. The quality of bearing offenses and injuries without anger or revenge.
Patience is one of my favorite words in the whole Bible. It denotes the idea of waiting and being in a position of expectancy. The definition of patience is: “able to accept or tolerate delays, problems, or suffering [undergoing distress or hardship] without becoming annoyed or anxious.” Jesus said it this way: Philippians 4:6 (NIV2011) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” In other words, the Lord wants us to be patient about all things. This means we might have to go through a little time of waiting and testing and suffering to get to the other side. The scripture states that there is a time and purpose and a place for everything under heaven. We know from James that it produces perseverance.
Let me explain what I mean by an example. In 2005, I built in our Eagles Point Condominium complex a 1,300 square foot single standing ranch condo. I sold that unit in 2015, some 10 years later. That’s ten years of property tax at $3,000 per year; gas, electric, water, sewer at $2,400 per year; maintenance of $1,800 per year; various vandalism issues of windows being broken out in the middle of winter; doors being damaged; and not to mention 10 years of wear and tear on the roof and siding and any other outside thing, including a negative response by people thinking there might be something wrong with this unit. How about the financial loss of having my funds tied up in a project that was not producing any income for the corporation? Oh yes, I did not tell you about the speck homes I was sitting on in Toledo, Ohio and one in Elida, Ohio, both built in the same year as 2005, all of them cost me even more per year than the condo. Do you know the amazing part? They all sold ten years later for the amount of money they were worth in that 2015 time! That was a miracle and that took ten years to develop.
A couple of things I learned from this suffering were quite significant in my development as a Christian and as a teacher in the body of Christ. First, I never under any circumstance complained or got discouraged about my struggle [reread the definition]. Second, I thanked the Lord for these 3 units on a daily basis and He was silent the entire time. He would speak to me from His Word, “you have My Word and My Promises and I never change.” When all was done, I asked him about why this took so long, He simply replied that He was preparing my heart for something much greater. That the money meant nothing to Him for He owned everything and that I was His son and an heir along with Jesus. That He can restore money very easily, but the changing of man’s heart is worth more than silver and gold [1 Peter 1:7]. This is what He is attempting to get across to us in James Chapter one
In summary, God is trying to change us into the image of Jesus Christ and help us conform to His likeness. He is all patient and is that way to us and our families and He wants us to grow up into more than Conquerors for the purpose of moving the Kingdom of God forward. Persevere and there will be nothing impossible to you who believe!
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