His word endures forever.
1 Peter 1:25
But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
In Psalm 136 it says God’s mercy endures forever twenty~six times alone, and there are at least twenty~one more times that is mentioned in the Old Testament alone.
1 Chronicles 16:34
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
His righteousness endures forever.
Psalm 112:19
He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted with honor.
His covenant with Abraham, Noah, David and through Jesus are all everlasting. And He will never leave or forsake us. God had to deal with nearly 4,000 years of stiff necked and rebellious people in the Old Testament. He sent prophets and mighty men of God to try and get them to be in a relationship with Him. Finally, after Malachi we see 400 years of silence. The next thing we see is Matthew, and God sent Jesus. God waited 30 years before He had Jesus step out into official ministry. The we see rebellion and religion at its worst through the leaders of Israel, the scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees. Even that does not stop God. He made a covenant with man and his longsuffering was going to remain, and prevail. He pays the price for all the people in the world that He loved so dearly with His own Son, Jesus. Since the resurrection of Jesus we still see rebellion, religion, stiff necks and hard hearts. And yet in His longsuffering for us He has given us the Holy Spirit for our comfort and guidance. God is patient.
I know there are a number of definitions out there for the word "patience", but I have one I live by and think it is accurate and powerful. Being patient does not mean gritting our teeth, holding our tongue and white knuckling it through a situation. But it absolutely has do with how we conduct ourselves while we go through something. Here is my very simple definition, Patience is behaving the same in bad times as we do in the good times. There is only one way to do that and certainly only one way to do that through any situation for a length of time. The only way to do that is to constantly cultivate patience in our life and do so with the deliberate guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That happens to be from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. If I had chosen the Amplified version you would have seen that passage begin in verse 4 with, Love endures long and is patient and kind;. The last words in verse 7 would have been, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. God is love and later in Chapter 13 of Corinthians you see that love never fails. God being love will always be longsuffering and patient with us!
When you take iron you should take vitamin C with it because the C causes the iron to assimilate in our bodies so much better. Faith and patience are much the same. We can know God's Word, know how to pray in the Spirit, know how to watch what we say with out mouths ~ watching to not speak contrary to God's Word, but if we want results, patience needs to be present. Faith is a powerful force but when an answer is not coming as quickly as we would like, and natural circumstances start dictating defeat, often people start talking negatively against the very Word of God and the promise(s) they started standing on in the beginning. Next thing you know their actions follow and they give up. Patience is what supports, reinforces and sustains our faith for the long haul. Our patience holds our faith up when when our flesh goes to war with us, and our soul becomes weak and wants to let go of our faith. Hebrews tells us that those who trust in God with faith and patience, inherit the promises. And James brings it home for us when he says in James 1:4, But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. There it is, the promise that tells us if we will let patience be fully developed in us and do the work of endurance in us, we will be without defect and so be perfect, and lack nothing. Patience is a very powerful force that we need to give attention to.
I knew as a young girl God wanted to use me in a way that was going to require devotion to Him and honestly was the only thing that would bring me peace and fulfillment. I will leave all the details out of this post that took me off track. I will start up in my twenties when I was ready to be serious with God. I was in my living room, children napping, and reading my Bible. I came across this verse.
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 2 Timothy 2:24
Not being given to process but being a goal oriented person, some of the clauses in that verse presented me with.... um challenges. But I had made God's Word the final authority in my life, and whatever it said, I had committed to do. So I had to do some DNA surgery on myself, and renew my mind with God's Word in those areas, and then let the Holy Spirit mold me. That was one of the best things I have ever done for myself. I learned so much about prioritizing, simplifying things and taking my hands off of situations. Oh... this took a few years so you know. Praise God He is patient. But at the end of that season God had me where I needed to be to get through things that were coming in my life and to be the handmaiden in His Kingdom I wanted to be.
One of the many things that were to come along was going to be a season with one of my daughters. Being able to minister the Word of God and my family are the two most important things to me. So, I guess it is no surprise that through them I learn so well. She was and adult, over eighteen, nearly done with her post secondary education and doing things that were concerning me right into a horrible state. I had faith in God to fulfill all the promises in His Word regarding children that I was standing on, but I knew she had her own free will. Those days were some of the darkest of my life. I was at a five point intersection when God dropped the verse in James 1:4 into my heart. I had to go to the grocery parking lot on the other side of the intersection because that verse flooded my heart with hope and washed over me in such a powerful way I did not want to drive for a few minutes. I knew God was telling me if I would just keep standing on His Word and trust Him, I would see those promises come true. It got better soon after that and though there were years of her not being just where I wanted see her, :-) , she is now, and has been for some time, in a great church with her children and husband. I am always amazed at how God has redeemed the years in her life. Her love for God and amount of revelation knowledge is nothing short of amazing. I lack nothing where she is concerned! She did come back to her borders, God did teach her and great is her peace. She is such an amazing woman. I am blessed that God allowed me to call her daughter.
I have cultivated God's Word in my life, and I have purposefully worked at developing the Fruit of the Spirit of God into who I am. I can tell you there is nothing that compares to that kind of walk with our Father.
Is there an area in your life that could use a little more patience? Patience is not that dreaded thing people say to never pray for. That is so like the enemy to try to shove that show off on God's people. Colossians 3:12 says, So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.... Paul tells us to "put on" patience. Patience is something we must deliberately and on purpose choose to do. Remember, patience is acting the same in bad times as we do in good times. Is there something in your life right now that you could take advantage of by using it as an opportunity to act in a kind and gentle manner, even when you feel like turning your emotions loose?
I know there are a number of definitions out there for the word "patience", but I have one I live by and think it is accurate and powerful. Being patient does not mean gritting our teeth, holding our tongue and white knuckling it through a situation. But it absolutely has do with how we conduct ourselves while we go through something. Here is my very simple definition, Patience is behaving the same in bad times as we do in the good times. There is only one way to do that and certainly only one way to do that through any situation for a length of time. The only way to do that is to constantly cultivate patience in our life and do so with the deliberate guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That happens to be from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. If I had chosen the Amplified version you would have seen that passage begin in verse 4 with, Love endures long and is patient and kind;. The last words in verse 7 would have been, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. God is love and later in Chapter 13 of Corinthians you see that love never fails. God being love will always be longsuffering and patient with us!
When you take iron you should take vitamin C with it because the C causes the iron to assimilate in our bodies so much better. Faith and patience are much the same. We can know God's Word, know how to pray in the Spirit, know how to watch what we say with out mouths ~ watching to not speak contrary to God's Word, but if we want results, patience needs to be present. Faith is a powerful force but when an answer is not coming as quickly as we would like, and natural circumstances start dictating defeat, often people start talking negatively against the very Word of God and the promise(s) they started standing on in the beginning. Next thing you know their actions follow and they give up. Patience is what supports, reinforces and sustains our faith for the long haul. Our patience holds our faith up when when our flesh goes to war with us, and our soul becomes weak and wants to let go of our faith. Hebrews tells us that those who trust in God with faith and patience, inherit the promises. And James brings it home for us when he says in James 1:4, But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. There it is, the promise that tells us if we will let patience be fully developed in us and do the work of endurance in us, we will be without defect and so be perfect, and lack nothing. Patience is a very powerful force that we need to give attention to.
I knew as a young girl God wanted to use me in a way that was going to require devotion to Him and honestly was the only thing that would bring me peace and fulfillment. I will leave all the details out of this post that took me off track. I will start up in my twenties when I was ready to be serious with God. I was in my living room, children napping, and reading my Bible. I came across this verse.
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 2 Timothy 2:24
One of the many things that were to come along was going to be a season with one of my daughters. Being able to minister the Word of God and my family are the two most important things to me. So, I guess it is no surprise that through them I learn so well. She was and adult, over eighteen, nearly done with her post secondary education and doing things that were concerning me right into a horrible state. I had faith in God to fulfill all the promises in His Word regarding children that I was standing on, but I knew she had her own free will. Those days were some of the darkest of my life. I was at a five point intersection when God dropped the verse in James 1:4 into my heart. I had to go to the grocery parking lot on the other side of the intersection because that verse flooded my heart with hope and washed over me in such a powerful way I did not want to drive for a few minutes. I knew God was telling me if I would just keep standing on His Word and trust Him, I would see those promises come true. It got better soon after that and though there were years of her not being just where I wanted see her, :-) , she is now, and has been for some time, in a great church with her children and husband. I am always amazed at how God has redeemed the years in her life. Her love for God and amount of revelation knowledge is nothing short of amazing. I lack nothing where she is concerned! She did come back to her borders, God did teach her and great is her peace. She is such an amazing woman. I am blessed that God allowed me to call her daughter.
I have cultivated God's Word in my life, and I have purposefully worked at developing the Fruit of the Spirit of God into who I am. I can tell you there is nothing that compares to that kind of walk with our Father.
Is there an area in your life that could use a little more patience? Patience is not that dreaded thing people say to never pray for. That is so like the enemy to try to shove that show off on God's people. Colossians 3:12 says, So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.... Paul tells us to "put on" patience. Patience is something we must deliberately and on purpose choose to do. Remember, patience is acting the same in bad times as we do in good times. Is there something in your life right now that you could take advantage of by using it as an opportunity to act in a kind and gentle manner, even when you feel like turning your emotions loose?
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through
faith and patience inherit the promises.
Hebrews 6:11-12
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