Patient Endurance.
So appropriate, right?:) But what does it even mean? According to Webster, patient means "bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint." Endurance is "the ability to withstand hardship or adversity; especially; the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity." So put them together, and my definition becomes...
Patient endurance: the ability to withstand a prolonged hardship calmly and without complaint.
Wow. So why has this been put on my heart? Well, because LIFE y'all.
Piles of dirty dishes, popsicle dripped across the floor right.after.being.mopped, the shoes and baby dolls and baseball cards all.over.the.house, the endless piles of laundry, the Capri Sun straw wrappers that never seem to make it in the trash and stick to my feet, and the "Mom!!! He hit me....she's bothering me...etc, etc."
The copier that jams every.stinkin'.time., the child you've shown an "A" 124325 times and they still say "R," throw-up viruses (enough said), waiting on hold for health insurance coverage information, or going through the drive-thru only to have something left off of your order AGAIN.
Y'all, these are just a few examples of everyday frustrations. But for many, it's a lot more than that.
It's sitting in hospitals waiting for your loved one to finish cancer treatment. It's checking the mailbox to see if that child support payment is going to be there to help get your kids the things they need. It's getting turned down for, yet, another job. It's explaining to your babies why their daddy isn't there. It's going to a job you know the Lord placed you in, but feeling done because you are exhausted and underappreciated. Or it could be not knowing what you are supposed to be doing and feeling completely without direction. It could be so.many.things.
So let me just be honest with you...I don't like to be patient. I don't want to have to endure anything. I want ease and peace and happiness. But as long as we are in this world, that is unrealistic. In the last couple of weeks, I have a been given some tough situations, but here are a few things the Lord is teaching me about patient endurance:
1. We need patient endurance so we will do God's will...and not our own.
"Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised." Hebrews 10:36 NLT
Hebrews was written to new Christians as an encouragement, and chapter ten especially as a call to persevere. These Christians had been through terrible suffering for their faith, and here, they are being encouraged to keep trusting the Lord.
While we have not experienced the physical suffering they did, life can be so tough. My natural reaction to hard things might be to sigh in frustration, complain, or think not nice thoughts. But if we have patient endurance, we can respond in God's will, and not our own. We can speak and act in love and kindness and bring joy and peace to situations where it might be the opposite.
Sounds good, right? But how do we get it???
2. The Lord leads us to patient endurance that comes from Christ.
"May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ." 2 Thessalonians 3:5 NLT
We can't do it on our own. Plain and simple. The Lord has to lead us to patient endurance. And to lead us, we have to be following Him, y'all. We have to be in the Word, talk with Him regularly, and be seeking His will for us. If we are staying close to Him, we will stay on the path that leads us to that place where we can withstand hardships calmly and without complaint...and ultimately to Christ.
If we choose not to follow Him, if we try to make our own road, if we try to power through in our own strength, we will be anxious and afraid and insecure and lost. I know because I've been there.
3. Patient endurance may look different for different people and for different situations.
We all have our own trials, and the Lord is the one who determines how long they last. Resist the urge to compare your predicament to another's. Patient endurance may be one week for one and five years for another, and there will be ups and downs. Trust the Lord to carry you through no matter how long it may last.
There is no question that life will bring hard things, but there is a decision to make in how you will handle them. I have learned that if I make a decision to stand firmly on the road the Lord is on before the storms come, I am more likely to follow His lead, and I encourage you to do the same.
I'm so thankful for a Savior who is willing to wait for me to catch up when I fall behind, who encourages me to keep going, and who ultimately is teaching me how to patiently endure whatever may come.
"He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
Colossians 1:17
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