Paul teaches us that the foundation of our house of faith must be constructed firmly from God’s Word. The bricks with which we build our house must include pure teaching, a life that looks like Jesus’, with one purpose in life and that is to show God in the world to others, all the while holding onto our faith through thick and thin.

The next building block is patience. Wow, it seems to be getting more and more difficult to keep this house of faith’s walls straight, because one’ patience is pushed to the limit every day. But God expects us to patiently give others space.

And let’s be honest now, that’s not easy!

Usually, we translate the Greek word makrothumia as patience, but another English word for it is ‘longsuffering’. This word explains very well what patience actually is. It’s suffering, losing energy, it’s giving up, giving space, and it’s certainly not short term.

God often expects us to suffer for the sake of others. Often, we have to bite our tongues, sometimes till it bleeds, because we know if we say something, it will lead to destruction.

But we don’t always succeed. Maria (not her real name) told her story honestly:

By nature, I’m not a very patient person, and sometimes my, uhm, road rage can become really bad. 

At the traffic lights a taxi pushed right in front of me. Immediately, I start hooting and gesturing, and you know what, a second taxi driver wants to cut in front of me. He had to slip in behind me and started hooting at me as if I was in the wrong. I was furious and summarily stopped in the middle of the road, got out of my car, and told that taxi driver exactly what my opinion of him and his cronies were.

The taxi driver definitely did not expect a woman to tackle him and just drove away. Back in my car, the young man who was travelling with me was quiet. He had gotten the fright of his life.

After I had dropped him, I thought to myself: This is exactly how the devil attacks me nearly every time and he gets away with it! He must’ve been laughing so hard after another victory over me for losing my temper like that. I was so upset with the devil and wished I could give him a good shake and tell him exactly what I thought of him. 

Does this sound familiar? Many of us have trip wires that are on the short side too. But still, patience is one of our building blocks. We must realise that it’s going to drain our energy. We will suffer. We will have to give a piece of ourselves.

In the same email Maria starts preaching to herself: 

I must learn to stay calm, and let God deal with my burdens and worries.  I pray about everything, but often I still try and solve things myself and that never works. Then I’m upset with everybody and with myself. I must put my life in God’s hands. I often try to remain calm, but man, it’s difficult and before I know it, everything is confused and upside down.

We can’t do it on our own. We still have so much to learn. We still have so much to give. We need to sacrifice a lot more and, yes, suffer too. God’s Spirit will help us with this brick called patience.

May patience grow bigger and bigger in our house of faith.

Scripture
2 Tim 3:10-13

Reflection
How short is your temper?
How straight does patience make your house of faith?
What must you do differently?

Prayer
Father, once again I realise that I cannot do it. I realise I need your Holy Spirit to help me with this. I don’t know how to suffer for others. I realise I’m too much the centre of my own life. Please come and give me wisdom and strength. Amen.