Ask my older grandchildren, “What’s
Grandma’s favorite word?” and hopefully they still remember that it is “Patience!”. Waiting for stuff when you’re a little kid is
HARD work! Waiting for stuff as a big
kid is also HARD work! How difficult is
it to wait for healing when we are ill? How tough is it to suffer through a challenging
workday or persist at an unfulfilling job?
Not getting angry when
things don’t go our way is also HARD!
Flying off the handle when we are misunderstood or cut-off in traffic or
rudely treated by someone is EASY – but it is not Patience! Patience is HARD! So how do we live in patience? with the help
of the Holy Spirit, of course!
The benefits of living by
the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:22-25 - 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such
things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in
step with the Spirit.
We hear a lot about the first three – Love, Joy and Peace – especially during the pre-Christmas season called Advent and also throughout the year. But what is this word – “forbearance”? Nobody speaks like that anymore, do they? So – being the word-geek that I am – I looked it up on Biblehub.com. Here are all the synonyms for the word “forbearance”:
patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness,
perseverance, especially as shown in
bearing troubles and ills, a willingness to stick with things; and also: long-suffering,
fairness, considerateness, gentleness, slowness in avenging wrongs; waiting
a sufficient time before expressing anger (count to 10); embracing steadfastness
and staying-power, resisting retribution.
The Greek word for forbearance
found in this passage (Gal 5:22) is
makrothymia
– makro – “long” and thymos – “passion”. Strongs
3115
Now
we know what it means, let’s see if we can determine HOW to have Forbearance!
First,
let’s look at the first set of synonyms – patience, endurance, constancy,
steadfastness and perseverance. What
image comes to mind? Perhaps a favorite scripture passage?
Heb 12:1, … And let us run with perseverance the race
marked out for us,… NIV
or … and let
us run with endurance the race that is set before us, NLT
Jam 5:10 - 10Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering,
take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we count as blessed those who have
persevered. You have
heard of Job’s perseverance
and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of
compassion and mercy.
James 1:2-4 – 2Consider
it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because
you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
4 Let perseverance finish its work
so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. NIV
or And
let steadfastness have
its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
ESV
or But let patience
have its perfect work,
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. NKJV
{I absolutely love biblehub.com
because you can type in any keyword search or specific verse and get great
results. Also, it has a feature for “Parallel”
where you can line up different translations side by side, verse by verse. And – my favorite feature – you can choose to
go to the Greek translations or the Strongs concordance, which is loaded with
great information and so many references your head might spin a bit. But it’s a great way to really dig in to the
Word, to look at different English translations to find words that you can
understand, that have meaning in today’s language. Did you know that there is a direct link to
biblehub from the Gruene UMC app? We always
hear about “pushpay” in the app, but there are actually 4 functions included in
the app – Contact us (for prayer requests and general questions); Pushpay to
donate; Bible to follow along with the service or do additional study on your
own and a link to the Facebook page profile.}
Thank you for your
forbearance while I digressed down the technology rabbit hole. 😊
The first set of synonyms seem to relate to
waiting, or enduring something that is taking a very long time. We are
encouraged to lean upon the strength and wisdom of the Spirit that all things
will come to fruition in Gods time.
The second set of synonyms - long-suffering, fairness, considerateness, gentleness,
self-restraint – seem to relate to a calmer sense of being. When I first read these words, I thought of “count
to 10”, as is suggested when dealing with a petulant toddler or an aggressive
driver. A statement I found on Biblehub
- If in English we had an adjective 'long-tempered' as a
counterpart to 'short-tempered,' then makrothymia could be called the
quality of being 'long-tempered'. Wouldn’t that be great? Instead of flying off the handle or having a
knee-jerk reaction to any perceived offense, we could be long-tempered, or slow
to anger? I remember this liturgy from my childhood: “Slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
from Psalm 86:15. This is the image of God I grew up with. If we are to be mirrored in His image, isn’t
this the perfect phrase to practice ourselves in our daily interactions?
Lastly,
let’s look at the rest of the Galatians Passage:
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, forbearance,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.
Kindness…
Goodness… Faithfulness… Gentleness… and Self-control
Doesn’t seem like these
words are almost all synonyms for each other?
Hopefully, we learned that Forbearance is maintaining Faithfulness in
suffering and treating others with kindness, goodness, gentleness and using
self-control to manage our temper and negativity?
Okay…. we’ve had a great language lesson and
explored some definitions and terms of what the words in Galatians mean, but
HOW do we do it? How do we maintain
Faithfulness in adversity? Maintain Gentleness in times of conflict? How do we
maintain Self-control when we’re under great stress?
We pray, we speak to our
Lord, our Savior, and study His Words of Holy Scripture. We seek the Holy Spirit by learning what the
words mean, by putting into practice what we learn from those meanings, and we
share the Gospel with everyone we know and meet. – God is Love, and we honor
him by sharing that Love! The first
three “fruits” point to the solution – Love, Joy and Peace. I will close with two more scripture passages
and pray that these passages may bring Peace, Joy and Love to your life and
world.
1 Cor 13:4-7 - 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is
not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres.
Phil 4:4-9:
4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the Peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is
noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such
things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen
in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
#bylauramcfall #ministrymessage
