Patient Endurance – Godly Life Part 8
Scripture: 2 Peter 1:3-11 TPT (Click Link)
5 So devote yourselves to lavishly supplementing your faith with goodness, and to goodness add understanding, 6 and to understanding add the strength of self-control, and to self-control add patient endurance, and to patient endurance add godliness, 7 and to godliness add mercy toward your brothers and sisters, and to mercy toward others add unending love. (2 Peter 1:5-7 TPT)
Here’s what I thought of when I first began to consider what it means to add “Patient Endurance” to our faith, our goodness, our understanding, and our self-control: This is gonna take awhile and it’s not gonna be easy!
Patient Endurance is not Passive Patience. It’s not sitting on the couch waiting for the phone or the doorbell to ring. It’s not Victim Patience. It’s not “poor me, the whole world is against me, everyone is out to get me, there’s nothing I can do but hide right here in my house!” It’s not “I Give Up” Patience. It’s not “I’ve tried everything, I’ve prayed, I’ve trusted God, God’s not answering my calls, I’m just finished.”
Eugene Peterson got it just right: 12 Meanwhile, the saints stand passionately patient, keeping God’s commands, staying faithful to Jesus. 13 I heard a voice out of Heaven, “Write this: Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “and blessed rest from their hard, hard work. None of what they’ve done is wasted; God blesses them for it all in the end.” (Revelation 14:12-13 MSG)
It’s not Passive Patience, it’s Passionate Patience! It’s doing what you can and trusting the rest to God. It’s speaking encouragement to others who are going through the same stuff. It’s helping someone else instead of focusing only on yourself.
What are Christ-followers to do when events play out in our world over which we have no control? What should we do and how should we be in the midst of global pandemic, racial injustice, economic inequities, and polarizing rhetoric? We are to stay faithful to Jesus and remain passionately patient—serving, praying, worshiping, and witnessing. We are to do what we can and patiently trust the outcome to our trustworthy God! God blesses us for it all in the end!
Prayer:
Father, May we remain Passionately Patient, not frightened and fearful, not helpless and passive, but standing firm and staying faithful to Jesus. And trusting! Amen.