The Getting of Patience
Colossians 1:11-12 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.
Did you know that amazon.com increases its revenue by 1% for every 100 milliseconds they save on the webpage loading time? That’s incredible! What a crazy world we live in these days.
It’s a world of instant gratification. It’s a world in which we don’t want to wait for anything. It’s a world in which the idea of patience, well, who wants to be patient for anything anymore?
Let’s face it. Patience isn’t our strong suit much these days anymore. We expect everything now. In my lifetime, television stations as we know them – the free-to-air kind – will probably die, unless they evolve to meet this demand for instant gratification. They have to.
These days, I hardly watch television, because there are so many online alternatives that allow me to watch what I want, when I want. And when I do watch TV, I record it so that I can fast-forward through the ads. And then, I watch it when I want, not when they want to dish things up to me.
So the free-to-air, paid by advertising model really, is a dead man walking. Patience? Who needs it when you can have everything you want, “on demand”?!
And yet, the Bible talks about patience rather a lot. Like patient endurance of suffering – while at the same time giving thanks to God? You have to be kidding me right? Patient endurance?! In this day and age?
We’re not even patient in waiting for our favourite TV show anymore. Why would we want to patiently endure suffering? And yet … suffering happens. So next time it does, how are you going to handle it?
May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. (Colossians 1:11-12)
There’s something about God’s strength that comes from His glorious power, right there in the middle of your suffering. We might think we can live life “on demand” but we can’t. Suffering happens. And when it does, what we need is that patient endurance that comes from God, so that in the middle of that suffering, we can experience God’s joy. So that in the middle of that suffering, we can give thanks to God with joy in our hearts.
So that in the middle of that suffering we can keep an eye on all that God has planned for us, in the future, and for all eternity.
And that sort of patience, the sort that brings joy and hope in the midst of suffering, is the sort that God wants to give to you. Here and now.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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