That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,
unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks
unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light: (Col 1:10-12)
It has been said that the thing we should never pray for it “Patience”, but the Bible commends patience as needed and central to our Christian life. If heaven was to respond to your asking and God was to say, “have patience” in response to a request, our thoughts would be of “amiable waiting”. We might recoil from this answer, but try to comfort ourselves in the knowledge that God has spoken personally and spoken favorably in the scriptures of patience. At this we normally would drop the matter before God, believeing that the passage of time is all that is now required. This is not the patience the scriptures speaks of.
The word “patience” is a Greek compound word, literally “under-abiding”. “Under” implies this word should bring to mind a positional relationship, but modern English teaches us this time based. There is a word which is time based and matches our definition “amiable waiting”, but that is the word “longsuffering”; or being “long-spirited”. There are a few cases in which the translators cross these two words, but careful study will reveal them. While patience is never stripped from the idea of “endurance”, it refers to the position from which we endure, and leaves the consideration of the time we endure to the word “longsuffering”.
And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to
the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit
the promises. (Heb 6:11-12)
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy
patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
(Rev 2:19)
For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of
God, ye might receive the promise. (Heb 10:36)
Patience being positional has other implications; it is now no longer passive waiting, but active. Now to receive that which is promised we must remain patient, meaning in a position under God. We must endure, not just over the passage of time, but from the position God has placed us in and desires for us to remain. Bible speaks of us “under-abiding” God and “under-abiding” difficult circumstances; both are being patient. God is over all, and so we are never cut off from our abiding in Him. This is our position of intercession; under-abiding God and making prayers in a the circumstance. We find ourselves as a soilider who is given a position to defend, given a fixed place to abide and endure whatever may come.
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so,
but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh
patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope...
(Rom 5:2-4)
(Rom 5:2-4)
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may
be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore… (Eph 6:13-14)
This “grace wherein we stand” is positional, and the first thing that any tribulation “worketh” (literally gr."energizes") is patience.We know this experientially, as the first thing we checked when the circumstance arose was if we have moved from our previous position in God. We have also spoken of it other ways, saying that troubling times tempt us to move away from God or saying we must take our "stand". We must remain standing in this grace, we must “patient” it; “abiding” in Him and “under-abide” our circumstance. From this position we can pray, from this position we view both the grace of God and the difficulty before us; in “intercession” between the two.
For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will
of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and
he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just
shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have
no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto
perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
(Heb 10:36-39)
If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which
was preached to every creature… (Col 1:23 )
Patience is not optional, nor is it something avoided by simply refusing to ask for it. It is from this position of “under-abiding” from which our prayers flow as intercession. We have not turned away from God to seek our own solution, but we abide in Him and under the circumstance at the same time. Patience is not something to obtain, as an object or spiritual substance we can receive, but is the full condition of a healthy spiritual life lived before God.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein
is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall
ye be my disciples. (John 15:7-8)
