Patience

Recently I have been doing word studies in my personal Bible study. I choose a word, then using the concordance in the back of my Bible I look up each reference listed for that word. I make sure to read the verses surrounding the one containing the word to gain context, as well as look up the cross reference verses, to make sure that I am applying the verse correctly. So far I have studied hope, waiting, and patience. While studying the word patience I was surprised at how it is used in the Bible and it's meaning. 

I had always pictured patience as being very passive. Remember when you were little and you wanted to do something and you were squirming just waiting to do what you wanted to do? And your mom would tell you to "be still, be quiet, and be patient." Well by it's very definition patience is very active and painful. Surprised? I was. 

Patience is defined as: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay; the quality of being patient as the bearing of pain. Many of the verses in the Bible that mention patience the word is used as a synonym for endurance or perseverance eg. Heb. 10:36, Heb. 12:1, James 5:11, Rom. 5:3. 

Endurance is defined as: the fact or power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way. Perseverance is similar in its definition. 

I used to think that if we felt pain during a time of being patient somehow we weren't truly being patient. We hadn't given our desires over to God or we would not be feeling this internal struggle. As it says in Romans 5:3, "we glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation worketh patience." As well as James 1:2-3, "...count it all joy when ye fall into [various trials]: Knowing this that [they] [produce] patience." But endurance and perseverance are by their very definition painful. These verses aren't calling us to live in a bubble of denial that what we are experiencing while being patient isn't painful, but rather to rejoice through the pain. 

Whether you are waiting to conceive, waiting for an adoption to become final, waiting for your mate, or the perfect job. Waiting takes perserverence and it hurts. I think my favorite definition that I found during this study is a definition of patiently: bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, or annoyance, with calmness. The only way we will find that calmness through the pain and difficulty is with God's help. 

Psalm 37:7 "Rest in The Lord and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself..."

Both Abraham and David are examples of patience while waiting for God's promises to them to be fulfilled.  Psalm 40:1 "I waited patiently for The Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my cry." Hebrews 6:15 "And so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise." Remember God loves us just as much as He did Abraham and David and He is the same today as He was thousands of years ago when they were living. He will fulfill His promises to His children we must only be patient. 

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