PATIENCE & GRACE: GOD'S PATIENCE IS SHOWN IN LOVING DISCIPLINE
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Patience And Grace
a) When you think about “patience” what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Is it some circumstance in which patience is a problem for you? Most people have a problem with patience, either in showing it themselves or being shown it by others.
b) If we would truly understand patience, we must first think about the patience and long-suffering of God. This is the paradigm or pattern of all true patience. In this lesson, we look at the patience and grace of God through Christ, so that we may understand patience at its foundation level.
c) Patience goes hand in hand with kindness. The patience of God stems from God's kindness or grace. In this lesson we will keep in mind that God is long-suffering toward us because he wants to be merciful toward us, and to save us from his wrath.
2. God's Patience Is Shown In Loving Discipline
a) We should add that God's grace and patience has a strong element of discipline. This is likened in the Bible to a loving father who is a strict disciplinarian (Hebrews 12:5-11).
b) Without getting sidetracked into a discussion about the discipline of children, we can help ourselves understand the long-suffering and loving-kindness of God by imagining two kinds of fathers.
i) The first lets his children run wild and is willing to grin and bear it.
ii) The second controls and corrects his children calmly, constantly, and consistently, with both firmness and loving devotion.
c) Which parent is showing true patience? The second — and that's the kind of patience our God of grace shows toward us.
d) James says, "Let patience have its perfect result" (James 1:2). Patience is a virtue, but not as an end in itself. It's only because patience results in a "perfect work" that there is any real point to it. By enduring our troubles, and not letting them get us down, we can derive benefit from them.
e) So what is this beneficial result? What is this "perfect work" of patience? We become "strengthened with power through God's Spirit in the inner person" (Ephesians 3:16). Patient endurance makes us spiritually fit to "fight the good fight" (2 Timothy 4:7).
f) Our troubles may prevent us from following a course in life that was our will to follow. Instead, we have to put ourselves in God's hands, trust him, and let him do with us what he wills. "For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-16).
g) "The Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, comforts us in all our affliction. With this comfort from God, we ourselves will be able to comfort others who are in any affliction" (2 Corinthians 1:3-7). By patient enduring and waiting upon God, we receive supernatural help from Him. We become a beacon of hope for other sufferers.
The End ...
1. Patience And Gracea) When you think about “patience” what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Is it some circumstance in which patience is a problem for you? Most people have a problem with patience, either in showing it themselves or being shown it by others.
b) If we would truly understand patience, we must first think about the patience and long-suffering of God. This is the paradigm or pattern of all true patience. In this lesson, we look at the patience and grace of God through Christ, so that we may understand patience at its foundation level.
c) Patience goes hand in hand with kindness. The patience of God stems from God's kindness or grace. In this lesson we will keep in mind that God is long-suffering toward us because he wants to be merciful toward us, and to save us from his wrath.
2. God's Patience Is Shown In Loving Discipline
a) We should add that God's grace and patience has a strong element of discipline. This is likened in the Bible to a loving father who is a strict disciplinarian (Hebrews 12:5-11).
b) Without getting sidetracked into a discussion about the discipline of children, we can help ourselves understand the long-suffering and loving-kindness of God by imagining two kinds of fathers.
i) The first lets his children run wild and is willing to grin and bear it.
ii) The second controls and corrects his children calmly, constantly, and consistently, with both firmness and loving devotion.
c) Which parent is showing true patience? The second — and that's the kind of patience our God of grace shows toward us.
d) James says, "Let patience have its perfect result" (James 1:2). Patience is a virtue, but not as an end in itself. It's only because patience results in a "perfect work" that there is any real point to it. By enduring our troubles, and not letting them get us down, we can derive benefit from them.
e) So what is this beneficial result? What is this "perfect work" of patience? We become "strengthened with power through God's Spirit in the inner person" (Ephesians 3:16). Patient endurance makes us spiritually fit to "fight the good fight" (2 Timothy 4:7).
f) Our troubles may prevent us from following a course in life that was our will to follow. Instead, we have to put ourselves in God's hands, trust him, and let him do with us what he wills. "For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-16).
g) "The Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, comforts us in all our affliction. With this comfort from God, we ourselves will be able to comfort others who are in any affliction" (2 Corinthians 1:3-7). By patient enduring and waiting upon God, we receive supernatural help from Him. We become a beacon of hope for other sufferers.
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