Patience and Pain

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. Colossians 1:11

“The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.”  John Piper

Luke 21:19 — “By your endurance [patience] you will gain your lives.”

Romans 2:7 — “To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, God will give eternal life.”

Hebrews 6:12 — “Do not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

          Today I celebrate the end of a short, but seemingly never ending, trial with my health.  Oh, yes it was hard to get through, painful, depressing, and challenging.  It definitely tested and required patience that was sometimes hard to muster, but I found it.  So this blog is about where do we look to during painful times and how to be patient through it all.

         "“Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ.”  [John Piper,]

         As for myself, patience is not my strong suit and coupled with pain, it can make me not myself.  I write blogs like these more for myself to learn and grow from, more than anyone intended for.  As much as I think I have strong inner strength, my lack in the patience department humbles me to acknowledge my weakness here.  As Margaret Thatcher once famously remarked: “I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

        "Patience demands tremendous inner strength.  For the Christian, this strength comes from God. That is why Paul is praying for the Colossians. He is asking God to empower them for the patient endurance that the Christian life requires. But when he says that the strength of patience is “according to [God’s] glorious might,” he doesn’t just mean that it takes divine power to make a person patient. He means that faith in this glorious might is the channel through which the power for patience comes."  [intouch.org]

        "Do we believe that God is working for us in the strangest and most painful turns of our lives?  The answer is: faith in God’s sovereign, future grace — the sovereign grace of God to turn the unplanned place and the unplanned pace into the happiest ending imaginable." 
        Okay, so this next quote may touch on some toes, as it did mine.  "Impatience is a form of unbelief. It’s what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God’s timing or the goodness of his guidance.  The opposite of impatience is a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness either to wait for God where you are in the place of obedience, or to persevere at the pace he allows on the road of obedience — to wait in his place, or to go at his pace."  [intouch.org]  
         Woah, yes that's hard truth to swallow, huh?  Our impatience is a form of arrogance in that we think we know what's best for the situation and how quickly it should be over and done with.   In Psalm 130:5. How does the psalmist battle against impatience in his heart?  "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, And in his word I hope."   We must turn to His Word and remind ourselves of his truths and promises that never change and are everlasting.  Romans 2:6-7  "God will repay each person according to what they have done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life."
         We must trust God and be patient through all the trials and painful circumstances we face.  Just as Abraham trusted still at 100 years of age that “So shall your offspring be", even tho he faced the reality of his body weakening and I'm sure painful trials regarding his health.  Yet Romans 4:20-21 says "Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised."  What a blessed example we have been given to follow.
        Making a list of what you struggle with can help you identify whether it's truly important or not on an eternal scale.  My patience struggles are waiting on others for whatever reason, people who don't try to do better, not being able to do things myself, and the painful wait for an illness to end.  But God says for all of these, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."


          "Patience isn’t something we are born with or receive instantly at the moment of salvation. Rather, it is developed over time with God’s grace and our cooperation."
[C. Stanley]

Where We Need Patience: [intouch.org]

1] With Ourselves... “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).

2] With Others..."Our attitudes and behaviors toward people should mirror those of God, who has been so patient with us" (2 Peter 3:9)   and  "When we focus on how other people should change, we become blind to our own need for a transformed heart that loves others with patience, kindness, humility, unselfishness, and endurance" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

3] With God..."All impatience with people or circumstances is ultimately directed at God, who is sovereign over all things" (Psalm 103:19)

How to Develop More Patience:

1] Ask for it through prayer.

2] Think biblically about the purpose of your trials and circumstances.

3] Accept responsibility for developing patience and let the Holy Spirit empower you towards it.


James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.