And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrew 6:12


In Jamaica there is a saying, 'patient man ride donkey'. That saying sums up in a nutshell what my whole life should be centered around. You see I am not a patient man at times, and then at other times I am too patient.


Throughout the new testament, patience is listed as one of the attributes a Christian should have and I believe that it  is significant towards our righteousness. Let's look at some passages.


Let's look at Galatians 5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness," Here we see the fruit of the Spirit includes patience. Patience is added to love, kindness, goodness and faithful and other things. Are we patient in our life's? Or have we decided to submit to what the world teaches us? Do we find that at times that we want God to do things for us instantly?


Even in teaching others we need to have patience. 2 Timothy 4:2, "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction". Before I became a Christian I was studied with for 6 months. Yes you may argue that I could have died in sin before I was baptized, but the patience executed by my teacher made me well grounded in faith. You see I am convinced that Jesus Christ died for my sins and that I am never going to walk the road that I was on before. It takes patience when one is teaching someone. One of my friends who became a Christian took much more time. It took her about 2 years to be convinced that she needed God in her life. But you know what, she is still a Christian, she has her bad days like all of us, but he is convicted and committed to serve Almighty God. Her patience to know the truth has paid off.


We are told in Colossians 3:12 that one of the things we should clothe ourselves in is patience. Consider the filthy clothing that we wore when we were in sin. Now we are called to have patience, love, kindness, humility, gentleness and compassion. Are we working on these things? You see we have many things that we are yet to accomplish. There is much work to do, and we will have to be patient.


God has been so patient with us, we continue to sin in full view. Imagine if God was not patient with us, would we be standing today. However we cannot take this for granted, we have to ensure that we are doing what God expects us to do. It is easy to want to seek our own happiness instead of considering what God wants for our lives. We are told in Roman 15:5 and I quote, "now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus." You see God gives us patience, so he is not only patient with us, but he gives us that gift.


If we had the patience of Job we could move many mountains. Let's start a new journey today, one that is founded on patience..


The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit. Ecclesiastes 7:8