Patience Is One of the Most Important Things in the Christian Life

Paul says here that he asks that we be strengthened with all power according to the might of His Glory, and it is interesting that one would expect the power Paul prays for to lead instead to health, financial abundance, triumph over all the problems we may have, and a prosperous life of great abundance.

But Paul says that the power he asks for is: “For all patience and longsuffering.” It is interesting that, in this case, he focuses instead on patience and longsuffering as one of the results of that power. That is why I believe that when he says, “according to the might of His Glory,” what Paul is saying is that we Christians use power not necessarily only for personal purposes and personal gain, but that we must also use it in the benevolent and powerful way in which God uses it.

The Christian’s power is not only for personal matters, but also to demonstrate the virtues and qualities of Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And one of the things for which we most need power is to reflect, once again, that character of Jesus Christ, and one of the most important qualities of Jesus Christ’s character is what Paul speaks of and describes as patience and longsuffering.

These are words—especially the word longsuffering—that are not very common. But we have to ask the Lord to help us cultivate that quality in our character and in our personality. First of all, patience; patience is important. An impatient, hasty, anxious, impulsive believer can never bear fruit as God desires. We have to ask the Lord to help us cultivate that quality of being patient.

Patient with whom? Obviously, first of all, patient with others. A marriage does not prosper if we are not patient with our spouses; a family does not do well if parents are not patient with their children and children are not patient with their parents. A church does not function well if the congregants are not patient with one another, or if the pastors are not patient with the congregants. Patience is that quality which, instead of immediately exploding when a flaw becomes apparent or a mistake is made in a human relationship, instead of immediately seeking retribution or revenge or exploding in resentment or accusatory words, simply bears the offense and allows time for correction to take place.

Patience is when you know that people need time to develop those qualities of the Holy Spirit, and so, while they are developing them, you forgive, endure, and instead of attacking, you simply wait for the right moment. How important it is, for example, for parents to be patient with their children, for parents to understand that forming a man or woman who possesses the qualities of maturity is something that takes time, and that we therefore give our children room and time while also instructing and disciplining them, but that we understand that forming their character is something that will require a great deal of time and that, in the meantime, we have to give them room, right?

So patience is important in the Christian life, and we need the power of God for that quality to become real in us. The Gospel also says that when trials come into our lives, we should regard them as something good because trials produce patience. Many times God will use life’s circumstances, life’s sufferings, and life’s inconveniences to form in us the quality, the character, that manifests patience, because patience is one of the most important things in the Christian life, and God will do everything possible, including taking us through a training process, to engender in us that quality of patience.

We definitely need a direct intervention of God’s power within us, but we also need circumstances that lead us to patience, and we also need a conscious decision on our part that I am going to value that quality of patience and cultivate it in myself; I am going to pray for the Lord to produce it in me, and I am going to do everything possible for that patient attitude to become a reality in my life.

In our next meditation, we will continue speaking a little more about these qualities of patience and longsuffering, for which we need the power of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us. God bless us, and until our next meditation.