Patience is an increasingly rare virtue in our culture. If you want a latte, just pop in a Keurig capsule. If you want someone to talk to, log on to Facebook. If you don’t feel like going to the mall, start shopping on Amazon.ca. While these modern conveniences make life easier, they also make us more impatient. Conditioned to expect things immediately, we struggle with impatience when we are forced to wait. Unlike us, Jesus was perfectly patient. He did not squirm and worry during seasons of waiting. When the most patient of us would have worn the rockers off the rocking chair with worry, He would have patiently kept walking.
Read on to learn 3 ways that Jesus was perfectly patient.
1) He was patient with His friends.
To be honest, Jesus’ disciples were not very fast learners. Just one chapter after He told them how much God loves children, Jesus had to rebuke them for sending little children away (Matthew 19:14). When the disciples were sailing with Jesus, they were terrified by a storm. Doubting, they cried out, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:35) Even though they questioned both His love and His power, Jesus graciously awoke and calmed the storm. Then He rebuked them, saying, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” (Mark 4:40) These are only a few examples of Jesus’ great patience with His disciples.
2) He was patient with His enemies.
From the very beginning of their ministry together, Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot would betray Him. Yet He graciously chose Judas as one of the inner circle of twelve disciples. Judas heard Jesus’ teaching with his own ears, shared bread at the same table, and walked the same dusty roads. The olive branch of kindness Jesus gave him was carved into a sword to stab Him in the heart. Yet Jesus patiently loved His wayward disciple until the very end.
3) He waited on God’s perfect timing.
Many of us struggle with waiting for certain events to happen. Perhaps you can’t wait until you graduate, make a career change, or retire. Or you may be counting down the days until you get released from a correctional facility. However, have you ever stopped to think about the fact that Jesus waited 33 years to die?
Each day, He lived in the shadow of the Cross. He knew the pain, humiliation, and suffering that awaited Him. Yet, for the joy of redeeming sons and daughters, He patiently waited for God’s timing. Jesus didn’t force God’s hand or jump ahead of schedule. At our prison ministries, we are so thankful for His sacrifice on the Cross.
Not only did He wait 33 years to die, but He also waited for 3 days to rise from the dead. Knowing the mental agony His disciples were facing, knowing the doubts and sorrow of those He loved, He still waited for the perfect moment to rise from the dead. What patience!
Faced with such a supernatural example of patience, we may throw up our hands and say, “It’s impossible! I can’t be patient like Jesus was!” But God doesn’t ask us to be patient in our own strength. He knows how impossible that would be.
Instead, He tells us, “Abide in Me, and allow Me to bear the fruit of patience in your life.” He can fill our mouths with patient words; He can change our responses to kind and gentle ones. When we allow God to work in our lives in this way, we truly can have the patience of Christ. At our prison ministries, we want to extend His loving patience to others.
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