God says I Am Patient (or at least I'm called to be)

What does it mean and look like to be patient?

The definition of being patient, according to Merrium-Webster, is steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity without complaint. As you can probably imagine, I don't like that last 'lil bit. Without complaint? Really? Meh.

It also means longsuffering, which is what God's word uses most often to describe patience. Longsuffering means enduring lasting offense or hardship. Yep. That seems extremely familiar as a Christian.

The Greek definition says that being patient is forbearing, equitable, fair, mild, gentle, to remain, to persevere, to endure, and to bear bravely and calmly.

On the Blue Letter Bible website I read the following that I wanted to share with you: Steadfastness; in the New Testament the characteristic of a man who's not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

Wow.

There's a familiar joke in this Faith community that recommends we should never pray for patience - God will ALWAYS answer yes, and it'll hurt. The reason this is a joke is because we absolutely must mature in our patience as Believers.

Being a believer in Jesus while living on this planet as a human being DEMANDS long-suffering. It's the thing, in my opinion, that matures our faith in Father the most. We must endure hardship after hardship after hardship until Heaven.

Why? Why does Father, Who's supposedly so good, allow for suffering and hardship? Because then why would we need Him and what would be the point of Heaven?

Friend, if we didn't have deeply painful experiences here on earth we wouldn't know the love of the Father. We wouldn't fully understand what Jesus did for us on the cross. We would be living in sin - even if we're moral people and "life is good".

If I collected all the goodest days from my life, and lived in that joy and peace and love every single day until I die, it won't be 1% of the joy I'll experience in Heaven forever.

Dear one, we're talking about forever versus, on average, 85 years. Kind of a no-brainer, am I right?!

Don't get me wrong here; life is painful, and this is a very sensitive subject. I talk more about salvation in this blog post and this video. Please read and watch.

To get from here to there - salvation, that is - we move through hardships, suffer betrayal, loss, loneliness, and all the hard stuff. We're not expected to move through this alone - oh no no! We have the Holy Spirit, we have our Jesus, and Yahweh who gives us strength, compassion, and mercy.

God is so good that He helps us to grow the patience He needs us to have. He gives us literally everything that we need! Always! And at the exact right time!

I'll talk more about being patient on YouTube or Rumble. Enjoy!