Patience: Hitting Replay
Last night, I watched a great Hallmark movie with my girls, “Christmas with Hope“. At a huge turning point to the story, the little girl whispered an important line. I missed it! Frustrated, I asked, “What did she say?” My daughter simply hit the right button on our remote and the girl instantly repeated her line.
I wonder how many times in my life, I simply “hit the button”, instantly repeating a line or a situation?
In our Monday study of the fruit of the Spirit, we’ve come to the last day of the quality of patience.
Patience in Galatians 5:22 – 23 means: “long-suffering in respect to persons”. This patience is fueled by merciful forgiveness.
Before I started Beth Moore’s Bible study, “Living Beyond Yourself”, I had never made the connection between patience and forgiveness. All I have to do is pause and think of those buttons that cause me to be impatience. Buttons similar to my remote control.
Often, these buttons are unforgiveness. Times when another has not followed through with a promise. A history of disobedient behavior in the same area. Buttons that are pushed over and over again causing us to struggle with being longsuffering towards others.
Psalm 103:12 tells us that God throws our sins as far away as the east is from the west, yet at times we struggle to do that for others. Yet, our God also calls us in Ephesians 4:31 – 32 to do just that!
You know how we know when we have forgiven another?
When we no longer hit replay. When we no longer tell the story, we know we’ve truly forgiven and moved on.
Aren’t you glad that Jesus doesn’t hit the replay button with us? As David said in Psalm 130:3 “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” (NIV)
He doesn’t keep a record. He doesn’t replay our stories. Whether it is with our children and their messy rooms, our husbands and our unmet expectations or friends and family, as women who are filled with His Holy Spirit, we can do the same and instead display patience – longsuffering fueled by mercy.