Living-loving like Jesus: Patience, episode 134

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal and also help and hope for your own life journey. So how was your gentleness journey this past week? Did your prodigal test it? Was he or she surprised at the possible differences in your responses? Today we move on adding patience to our wardrobe as a follower of Jesus. I remember rejoicing at some hard evidence that I had truly grown in patience. I was on a trip and everything I had almost in my life at that time was red.

0:55 Oh look, I'm wearing red. I had a red Mustang convertible. I had red luggage and I had a red Mac Air computer, a red iPhone and a red mini iPad. And we stopped in Lisbon, Portugal for a layover and everything around there, there was a big Vodafone charging station where you could charge all your things. It was red. And there I sat surrounded by red charging all my red electronics. My assistant Michelle came running up quick. We have to get through immigration to get to the club and four planes just landed. We need to beat them. So I quickly pulled my cords, wrapped them up, grabbed my phone and my iPad and rushed to immigration, leaving my red Mac lying on the red Vodafone station, almost invisible. After immigration, which quickly filled up behind us, we had to go through security again. Oh, Psy, no, my laptop was missing. Immediately I could see it was back there still, red on red. Michelle, my assistant, tried to go back where we had just come, but they wouldn't let her. We made it to the club. I got settled and she took off. Two hours later,

2:28 she returned without my computer. But with a promise from the airport police to look through the security footage for it, I was amazed at my peace of mind and heart, at my ability to say, thank you, Lord, I could hardly believe how patient I was and so grateful for the good work God was doing in my life to bring me to this point that I could be peaceful and patient when things were not good. And it lasted. That has become more a way of life for me.

3:08 By the way, the police found the computer. It had been turned into a nearby store by an honest traveler, but it was more than two weeks and still we hadn't gotten it. It had been going back and forth between the airport police and the city police. Finally, we had to ask some friends who lived there to go and get it. I got it. I had a loaner while I waited, but mostly I realized God had done a work of patience in me because I really didn't get upset. As we look again at what to wear as a child of God, we turn to Colossians 312 once more. Therefore, it says, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves, put on wear, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and today, patience. We all know what patience means and we often assure others that patience is not our strength. Like the new dad who said, I have no patience for all this baby stuff or the mom who waits impatiently for her daughter to get home from a date or the boss who declares, I am losing my patience with your carelessness or my long wait for a prodigal to see the light and turn from the dark side. It's a hard time

4:44 to be patient, isn't it? So the dictionary gives us these definitions for patience. It is the quality of being patient as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, living through it without complaint, loss of temper, or irritation. Not easy to do a lot of times. It's also an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay to have patients say with a late flight or somebody coming to pick you up. We really don't like to have to wait, do we?

5:36 It also says that patience is quiet, steady perseverance, even tempered response, diligence to work with patience, also to be patient in suffering. Doesn't sound fun, but that's we know, don't we, patience in suffering. Synonyms often help us grasp the true meaning of the word, things like composure, diligence, endurance, fortitude, grit, moderation, perseverance, persistence, restraint, self-control. So how are you doing? Is your patience there on a regular basis or is impatience more likely? Scripture reveals the patience of God to us. God has been very patient. I know with me it's amazing how patient he's been. In Romans we read, do you show contempt for the riches of his gods, kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that it is his kindness that is intended to lead you to repentance.

6:57 He's patient, waiting on us to learn and grow. What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, had born with great patience the objects of his wrath? Oh, he has. What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy? We, we are the objects of his mercy and he could just wipe us out and instead he chooses to be patient until we learn and grow and experience all that he has for us. Paul tells us in 1st Timothy, but for the very reason I have shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Jesus is immensely patient with us and calls on us to have that patience with our loved ones. There are admonitions to us to be patient. He says, be patient then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. He doesn't keep going out and yanking those

8:31 plants up to see if they're growing. No, he's patient. He waits and he says he wants us to. So how? How do we become patient? It seems impossible for many of us. God does not leave us helpless though. We are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you, you and I may have great endurance and patience. God is in the constant process of strengthiness with his own power, his glorious might, so that we will grow in endurance and patience.

9:18 And then, familiar verse, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fruitfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All these things that are kind of foreign to our natural instincts. He says, as the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus comes to live in us, He will bring all of these more and more into reality in our lives, including patience. Once again, we see that God calls us to the impossible, just as we have in every one of the clothing, the pieces of clothing that we're supposed to wear as a child of God. We think, I can't do that. I can't be gentle. I can't be humble over and over. And this one again is maybe even more impossible than others. But he is busy and he's growing us into patient people as we allow him to guide us and give us his ideas and his will and his words and his way of relating.

10:36 Then he provides the means, the powerful available, doing the impossible Holy Spirit, living in us to make us patient. Oh my goodness. So what does it look like to live patiently with a loved one, especially a loved one who's pretty irritating or obnoxious or hurtful or hurtful or abandoning you? Patience often involves waiting. Probably you don't like waiting any more than I do. Sometimes it is challenging to follow through with this exhortation from Paul. Let us not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. That's calling us to patience. Doing good. Yes, we probably are doing a lot of good, the loving, disciplining, grace giving, exhorting, praying for our loved ones. These are good things. But sometimes the hope for, prayed for, begged for good changes never seem to come. And we have to wait.

11:59 Guess what? There's a lot of good in the waiting. God seems to say so. I'm just going to read a few verses where he's talking about what happens when we wait. In Psalm 38, Lord, I wait for you. You will answer, Lord my God. And in Romans 8, but if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Well, hopefully more and more, we'll wait for it patiently. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. So we're not the only ones waiting.

12:41 All of creation is waiting for Jesus to return and do the work that he's planning to do. And part of that will be his children who look more and more like Jesus, wearing the clothes that he's given us to wear. Psalm 27, wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. In the morning, Psalm 5 says, Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my request before you and wait expectantly. That's from David. He's saying, I can come to you and tell you what I want, but then I give you my request and I wait for your perfect timing and perfect way to answer my request.

13:35 Psalm 40, David again, I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. So David was in a hard place. Something bad was going on. And he came to the Lord and he waited patiently. And God is asking us as we do our best to love and care for and encourage and help our wanderers. He says, wait patiently. Wait patiently. He hears our cry of our heart. He hears what we say. Help, help, Lord. He says, wait, I'm doing a good work. You'll see.

14:20 Think of those throughout Scripture who have waited. Abraham, who waited until he was around 100 for a child. Joseph waited to get out of prison. Moses waited in the desert while the children of Israel had rebelled. The children of Israel were in the desert and in captivity, waiting for a word from God. They were waiting also throughout the history of Israel for the Messiah. And two old, old people, Simeon and Anna, waited to see Jesus. And when he came to the temple to be presented, they had waited and they got to see the salvation that was coming in the Messiah.

15:05 The disciples, Jesus told them, go and wait till I come with the Spirit to put in you and give you what you need. And many, many more who are mentioned in the 11th chapter of Hebrews of what they waited for. And God waits. He has waited through all the prodigalness of his children. Probably some of us were waited on in our own prodigalness. And he's calling us to continue that. He waited for just the right time to send a son in the incarnation and now waits for the right time to send him again. And he waits for each of us and each of our loved ones to surrender, to accept, to return, to trust. And since he's waiting, so we wait with patience.

16:06 And Isaiah says, Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Therefore, he will rise up to show you compassion, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him. So if you need blessing in your life, wait on God to do what he's going to do. How are you in waiting? Is patience a strength or not a strength for you? But can you see how Jesus would like to make patience be kind of the stellar thing in your life that you are able to wait patiently and be at peace and not complain? And you wait with great love for your prodigal to return. And then next week we look at another amazing piece of clothing that Jesus has called us to, and that is forgiveness. God bless you.