Living-loving like Jesus: Patience, episode 134

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here

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at When You Love a Prodigal and also help and hope for your own life journey.

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So how was your gentleness journey this past week? Did your prodigal test it? Was he or she

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surprised at the possible differences in your responses? Today we move on adding patience

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to our wardrobe as a follower of Jesus. I remember rejoicing at some hard evidence that I had truly

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grown in patience. I was on a trip and everything I had almost in my life at that time was red.

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Oh look, I'm wearing red. I had a red Mustang convertible. I had red luggage and I had a red

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Mac Air computer, a red iPhone and a red mini iPad. And we stopped in Lisbon, Portugal for a layover

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and everything around there, there was a big Vodafone charging station where you could charge

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all your things. It was red. And there I sat surrounded by red charging all my red electronics.

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My assistant Michelle came running up quick. We have to get through immigration to get to the club

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and four planes just landed. We need to beat them. So I quickly pulled my cords, wrapped them up,

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grabbed my phone and my iPad and rushed to immigration, leaving my red Mac lying on the

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red Vodafone station, almost invisible. After immigration, which quickly filled up behind us,

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we had to go through security again. Oh, Psy, no, my laptop was missing. Immediately I could see

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it was back there still, red on red. Michelle, my assistant, tried to go back where we had just come,

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but they wouldn't let her. We made it to the club. I got settled and she took off. Two hours later,

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she returned without my computer. But with a promise from the airport police to look through the

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security footage for it, I was amazed at my peace of mind and heart, at my ability to say,

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thank you, Lord, I could hardly believe how patient I was and so grateful for the good work

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God was doing in my life to bring me to this point that I could be peaceful and patient

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when things were not good. And it lasted. That has become more a way of life for me.

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By the way, the police found the computer. It had been turned into a nearby store by an honest

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traveler, but it was more than two weeks and still we hadn't gotten it. It had been going back and

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forth between the airport police and the city police. Finally, we had to ask some friends

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who lived there to go and get it. I got it. I had a loaner while I waited, but

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mostly I realized God had done a work of patience in me because I really didn't get upset. As we

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look again at what to wear as a child of God, we turn to Colossians 312 once more. Therefore,

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it says, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves, put on wear,

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compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and today, patience. We all know what patience means

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and we often assure others that patience is not our strength. Like the new dad who said,

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I have no patience for all this baby stuff or the mom who waits impatiently for her daughter

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to get home from a date or the boss who declares, I am losing my patience with your carelessness

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or my long wait for a prodigal to see the light and turn from the dark side. It's a hard time

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to be patient, isn't it? So the dictionary gives us these definitions for patience. It is the quality

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of being patient as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, living through it

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without complaint, loss of temper, or irritation. Not easy to do a lot of times. It's also an ability

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or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay to have patients say

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with a late flight or somebody coming to pick you up. We really don't like to have to wait, do we?

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It also says that patience is quiet, steady perseverance, even tempered response, diligence

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to work with patience, also to be patient in suffering. Doesn't sound fun, but that's we know,

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don't we, patience in suffering. Synonyms often help us grasp the true meaning of the word,

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things like composure, diligence, endurance, fortitude, grit, moderation, perseverance,

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persistence, restraint, self-control. So how are you doing? Is your patience there on a regular

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basis or is impatience more likely? Scripture reveals the patience of God to us. God has been

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very patient. I know with me it's amazing how patient he's been. In Romans we read,

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do you show contempt for the riches of his gods, kindness, forbearance, and patience,

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not realizing that it is his kindness that is intended to lead you to repentance.

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He's patient, waiting on us to learn and grow. What if God, although choosing to show his wrath

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and make his power known, had born with great patience the objects of his wrath? Oh, he has.

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What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy? We,

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we are the objects of his mercy and he could just wipe us out and instead he chooses to be patient

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until we learn and grow and experience all that he has for us. Paul tells us in 1st Timothy,

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but for the very reason I have shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners,

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Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him

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and receive eternal life. Jesus is immensely patient with us and calls on us to have that patience

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with our loved ones. There are admonitions to us to be patient. He says, be patient then, brothers

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and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable

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crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. He doesn't keep going out and yanking those

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plants up to see if they're growing. No, he's patient. He waits and he says he wants us to.

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So how? How do we become patient? It seems impossible for many of us. God does not leave

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us helpless though. We are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might

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so that you, you and I may have great endurance and patience. God is in the constant process of

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strengthiness with his own power, his glorious might, so that we will grow in endurance and patience.

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And then, familiar verse, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

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goodness, fruitfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All these things that are kind of foreign to our

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natural instincts. He says, as the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus comes to live in us,

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He will bring all of these more and more into reality in our lives, including patience.

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Once again, we see that God calls us to the impossible, just as we have in every one of the

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clothing, the pieces of clothing that we're supposed to wear as a child of God. We think,

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I can't do that. I can't be gentle. I can't be humble over and over. And this one again is maybe

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even more impossible than others. But he is busy and he's growing us into patient people as we

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allow him to guide us and give us his ideas and his will and his words and his way of relating.

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Then he provides the means, the powerful available, doing the impossible Holy Spirit,

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living in us to make us patient. Oh my goodness. So what does it look like to live patiently

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with a loved one, especially a loved one who's pretty irritating or obnoxious or hurtful or

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hurtful or abandoning you? Patience often involves waiting. Probably you don't like waiting any more

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than I do. Sometimes it is challenging to follow through with this exhortation from Paul. Let us

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not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give

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up. That's calling us to patience. Doing good. Yes, we probably are doing a lot of good, the loving,

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disciplining, grace giving, exhorting, praying for our loved ones. These are good things. But

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sometimes the hope for, prayed for, begged for good changes never seem to come. And we have to wait.

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Guess what? There's a lot of good in the waiting. God seems to say so. I'm just going to read a few

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verses where he's talking about what happens when we wait. In Psalm 38, Lord, I wait for you. You

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will answer, Lord my God. And in Romans 8, but if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for

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it patiently. Well, hopefully more and more, we'll wait for it patiently. For the creation waits

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in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. So we're not the only ones waiting.

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All of creation is waiting for Jesus to return and do the work that he's planning to do. And part of

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that will be his children who look more and more like Jesus, wearing the clothes that he's given us

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to wear. Psalm 27, wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

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In the morning, Psalm 5 says, Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my request before you

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and wait expectantly. That's from David. He's saying, I can come to you and tell you what I want,

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but then I give you my request and I wait for your perfect timing and perfect way to answer my request.

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Psalm 40, David again, I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry.

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So David was in a hard place. Something bad was going on. And he came to the Lord

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and he waited patiently. And God is asking us as we do our best to love and care for and encourage

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and help our wanderers. He says, wait patiently. Wait patiently. He hears our cry of our heart.

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He hears what we say. Help, help, Lord. He says, wait, I'm doing a good work. You'll see.

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Think of those throughout Scripture who have waited. Abraham, who waited until he was around

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100 for a child. Joseph waited to get out of prison. Moses waited in the desert while the

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children of Israel had rebelled. The children of Israel were in the desert and in captivity,

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waiting for a word from God. They were waiting also throughout the history of Israel for the Messiah.

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And two old, old people, Simeon and Anna, waited to see Jesus. And when he came to the temple to

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be presented, they had waited and they got to see the salvation that was coming in the Messiah.

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The disciples, Jesus told them, go and wait till I come with the Spirit to put in you

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and give you what you need. And many, many more who are mentioned in the 11th chapter of Hebrews

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of what they waited for. And God waits. He has waited through all the prodigalness of his children.

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Probably some of us were waited on in our own prodigalness. And he's calling us to continue

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that. He waited for just the right time to send a son in the incarnation and now waits for the

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right time to send him again. And he waits for each of us and each of our loved ones

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to surrender, to accept, to return, to trust. And since he's waiting, so we wait with patience.

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And Isaiah says, Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Therefore, he will rise up to show you

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compassion, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him. So if you need

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blessing in your life, wait on God to do what he's going to do. How are you in waiting? Is

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patience a strength or not a strength for you? But can you see how Jesus would like to make

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patience be kind of the stellar thing in your life that you are able to wait patiently and be at peace

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and not complain? And you wait with great love for your prodigal to return. And then

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next week we look at another amazing piece of clothing that Jesus has called us to, and that

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is forgiveness. God bless you.