Today’s Scripture: Proverbs 19:11 NIV
A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offence.
President Ulysses Grant was a remarkable man. He reputedly displayed more patience than any President before his time. Once he came downstairs to take a drive in his buggy. The buggy was not there. He smoked his cigar, and waited and waited. He walked up and down the portico, and would “right-about” in regular army style, and walked up and down, and smoked again. After waiting until the patience of an ordinary man would have been worn out, Albert his driver finally appeared. Instead of railing out at Albert for his slow appearance, he said something pleasant to him, took the reins and drove off.
We need patience to sustain meaningful relationships. We need to develop the capacity to tolerate people, just as we expect to be understood and tolerated by others. To be patient is to be slow to anger—not easily irritated. This requires self-control, giving us the inner space to give others the benefit of the doubt.
God is patient. He declared to Moses: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7). We have the capacity to be exactly this too since He created us in His image.
Marriages have been destroyed by quick tempers. Friendships have been strained by easily offended parties, and employees have had their morale dampened by bosses who lash out at them at the slightest provocation; but you are different. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. You have the Spirit of God, and you manifest self-control and patience.
Today, God is at work in you to will and to do, according to His good pleasure. If your relationships have hitherto been strained by impatience, God is rebuilding them today, in Jesus’ name. You have what it takes!
Memorize & Meditate:
“Love is patient, love is kind….” 1 Corinthians 13:4
Prayer/Confession:
Lord, grant me the grace to continually be patient. The love of God has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit, so I am patient and kind. I am not easily angered. I bear the fruit of patience, and walk in it, in Jesus’ name.
