Patient In Affliction Romans 12:12 James 1:2-4 Romans 5:1-5 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 James 5:10-11 Hebrews 12:4-11 Proverbs 19:11 Habakkuk 3:17-19 Psalms 27:13-14 07.25.18

PATIENT IN AFFLICTION

BREAD

¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Romans 12:12 (NIV)

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴ Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  James 1:2-4 (NIV)

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.  Romans 5:1-5 (NIV)

³ We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.
⁴ Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; ⁵ in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; ⁶ in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; ⁷ in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; ⁸ through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; ⁹ known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.  2 Corinthians 6:3-10 (NIV)

¹⁰ Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ As you know, we consider 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 5:10-11 (NIV)

⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
⁵ And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
⁶ because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸ If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹ Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰ Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  Hebrews 12:4-11 (NIV)

¹¹ A man's wisdom gives him patience.  Proverbs 19:11 (NIV)

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, ¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. ¹⁹ The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.  Habakkuk 3:17-19 (NIV)

¹³ I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.  Psalm 27:13-14 (NIV)

BUTTER

“Even as muscle gets stronger through use as it’s broken down and built up, the same is true of faith. James 1 says, “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance” (verses 2–3 NLT).  God will test our faith for our own good. I know we would like to have trouble-free lives. I know we would like to have temptation free-lives. It’s been said that one Christian who has been tempted is worth a thousand who haven’t. It’s also said that Christians are a lot like teabags; you don’t know what they are like until after you put them into hot water. Faith grows stronger through testing. Take Abraham for example. The Lord started by telling him to leave his country. Later on God told him to take his son Isaac and lay him on the altar. He started with a simple test and went on to a more difficult one. We’ll go through series of tests in our Christian lives of faith, and each one will make us stronger. Yes, the tests will get harder. But we’ll get even stronger, because God is whipping us into shape for greater challenges and greater opportunities. Everything is preparation for something else.”  Greg Laurie

“Christian patience is based upon the absolute, unshakeable belief that God is sovereign and that He is at work in the lives of His children. Christian patience stems from the knowledge that you will not be forgotten nor forsaken by the God to whom you have committed your soul regardless of what is happening around you.”   Michael Youssef

“Patience in the moment only comes from gratefulness for the moment. …. ”   Ann Voskamp

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”   Augustine

“Patience is our martyrdom.”   Gregory the Great

“We have great demands, but Christ has great supplies. Between here and heaven, we may have greater wants than we have yet known. But all along the journey, every resting place is ready; provisions are laid up, good cheer is stored, and nothing has been overlooked. The commissary of the eternal is absolutely perfect.”  Charles H. Spurgeon 

“But when the psalmist said, ‘All my springs are in you,’ he meant that all his innermost resources were found in His ever-flowing and overflowing Lord – all his courage, all his joy, all his resilience, all his optimism, all his hope, all his love, all his wisdom, all his patience.  The Lord Jesus is the source of that which refreshes our personalities and of all that makes our personalities refreshing.”   Robert J. Morgan 

“Would you follow Christ?  Then follow Him in self-denial, in humility, in patience, and in readiness for every good work.  Follow Him with a daily cross upon your back, and look to His cross to make your burden light.  Follow Him as your Guide and Guard, and learn to see with His eyes, and to trust in His arm for defense.  Follow Him as the Friend of sinners, who healeth the broken in heart, and giveth rest to the weary souls, and casteth out none that come unto Him.   Follow Him with faith, resting your whole acceptance with God, and your title to heaven, on His meritorious blood and righteousness.  Lastly, follow Him with much prayer.  For, though He is full of compassion, He loves to be much entreated; and when He is determined to give a blessing, you must yet wrestle with Him for it.  Thus follow Jesus, and He will lead you to glory.”   K. H. Von Bogatzky

“How do we wait for God? We wait with patience. But patience does not mean passivity. Waiting patiently is not like waiting for the bus to come, the rain to stop, or the sun to rise. It is an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the full in order to find there the signs of the One we are waiting for.  The word patience comes from the Latin verb ‘patior’ which means "to suffer." Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, tasting it to the full, and letting the seeds that are sown in the ground on which we stand grow into strong plants. Waiting patiently always means paying attention to what is happening right before our eyes and seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.”   Henri Nouwen

“A strong confidence in God’s loving intentions and enveloping care fortifies us to face whatever life throws at us.”   Ray Ortlund

“Waiting is just a gift of time in disguise — a time to pray wrapped up in a ribbon of patience — because is the Lord ever late?”    Ann Voskamp

“Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain.  It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life.  Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding.  We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited for us.”    Charles H. Spurgeon

“Strengthen me Lord according to Your glorious might.  Give me great endurance and patience and joy so that I may walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel.  May I please You in all that I say and do.  You alone are faithful to keep me from falling and to equip me for this so great an endeavor.  May I, through Your great power, leave the aroma of sweet Jesus in my every encounter that I may change my sphere by bringing Your Presence to every circumstance You present me with today.  Always for your glory alone and my good.”  BHY 

HEART SAVOR

• ·         There is always purpose in the believer’s pain.  We are to patiently endure the trial in great expectation of what God is doing in our lives – conforming us into the image of His Son.  All other endeavors we may seek pale in comparison to this great goal.
• ·         Pain is pain.  Affliction is affliction.  Troubles are troubles.  The hurt and disappointment and pain are very real yet God is greater still.  He allows us the grace sufficient to meet each tribulation we face through His power for His glory.  Flesh will falter the Spirit always stands.
• ·         God is good and gracious and loving and kind.  He does not treat us as our sins deserve.  He loves us with an everlasting love and allows only what will be for our ultimate good even though we perhaps cannot understand it.