PATIENCE, THE SECOND MILE

PATIENCE, THE SECOND MILE

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

   Psalm 92:5-6 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

   Proverbs 8:11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

  1Corinthians 2:10-14 God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, especially the deep things of God. After all, who knows everything about a person except that person's own spirit? In the same way, no one has known everything about God except God's Spirit. Now, we didn't receive the spirit that belongs to the world. Instead, we received the Spirit who comes from God so that we could know the things which God has freely given us. We don't speak about these things using teachings that are based on intellectual arguments like people do. Instead, we use the Spirit's teachings. We explain spiritual things to those who have the Spirit. A person who isn't spiritual doesn't accept the teachings of God's Spirit. He thinks they're nonsense. He can't understand them because a person must be spiritual to evaluate them.

  Patience training is a strengthening everyday encounter exercise . . . if we are agreeable. It involves human patience to please self and others or submissive Romans 12:1-3 godliness to please God and thereby others; the natural man versus the holy man. Though I am considered a patient man, I recognize this is a matter that without equivocation is something I need continuing vertical and lateral training in.

   Just how does the gaining thereof work for the follower of Christ as a trainee?

  Jesus explained that tribulation (G2347θλίψις thlipsis; thlip'-sis From G2346; pressure (literally or figuratively): - afflicted, (-tion), anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble.) is common to life. (Jn.16:33) Paul and James explained that tribulation (G2347) “worketh” patience. (Rom.5:3; Jam.1:3) In the light of all Bible context we know that results good or bad depend on our submission or resistance. We may become wiser or increasingly brutish.

  I confess to not liking the truth that gaining patience doesn’t come thru a life of escaping pressure, stress, afflictions. Said escaping being the pursuit of happiness and/or relief in many forms whether listening to arias, utilizing opoids or even walking the razor’s edge.

  I very much want growth in patience. I very much don’t want to experience the required exercise. Herein lies the problem.

EBB4