PATIENCE & SUFFERING | THE HARDSHIPS PAUL SUFFERED

1. Patience And Suffering

a) You are waiting at a bus stop. It's pouring rain. The bus is running late. Your kids are squabbling. You've just realized that you left your credit card at a hotel's checkout. It's moments like these that patience is a virtue hard come by. It's easy to be patient when the weather is perfect, the bus runs on time, the kids are like saints, and your purse is in order.

b) In the same way — in your spiritual life — its easy to be patient with God when your church is wonderful, your neighbors are tolerant, your prayers are all answered, your sins are few and forgiven, your spouse and family share your faith, you have no enemies nor opposition, and you are blessed with love, health, and money. But it may not be that way for you, and certainly that's not how it is for many Christians.

c) Paul, and the people he served in the gospel, did not have an easy time in their faith, otherwise why would he exhort them to be "rejoicing in hope, patient in troubles, devoted to prayer" (Romans 12:12)? They had hope for the future but tribulation in the present. So they were encouraged to be patient and prayerful while they suffered.

2.The Hardships Paul Suffered

a) Some of the personal passages from Paul's writings make us wonder how he ever coped. If he had patience in his circumstances, then he is well qualified to be a mentor for us.

2 Corinthians 6:4-6 
"... in everything we show ourselves to be servants of God -in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses. We endure beatings, imprisonments, and riots. We labor, without proper sleep or meals. We endure in pureness, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love... "

2 Timothy 2:9-12 
"......I suffer hardship to the point of being chained as a criminal. But God's word isn’t chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the chosen. I wish that they too may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This saying is faithful: For if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him."