Forget not all His benefits. Psalm 103:2

It is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints, and to observe His goodness in delivering them, His mercy in pardoning them, and His faithfulness in keeping His covenant with them. But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to remark the hand of God in our own lives? Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of His goodness and of His truth, as much a proof of His faithfulness and veracity, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before? We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose that He wrought all His mighty acts, and showed Himself strong for those in the early time, but doth not perform wonders or lay bare His arm for the saints who are now upon the earth. Let us review our own lives. Surely in these we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God. Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed? Have you had no manifestations? Have you had no choice favours? The God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart, hath He never listened to you and answered your requests? That God of lavish bounty of whom David sang, “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things,” hath He never satiated you with fatness? Have you never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters? Surely the goodness of God has been the same to us as to the saints of old. Let us, then, weave His mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness, and the jewels of praise and make them into another crown for the head of Jesus. Let our souls give forth music as sweet and as exhilarating as came from David’s harp, while we praise the Lord whose mercy endureth for ever. (CH Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Morning July 8).

I hesitated to include another devotional from Spurgeon today.  But, as I pondered kindness, this devotional was impressed upon my heart.  And, as I worked through another Bible study the next morning, it made the same plea – remember the kindnesses of the Lord in your life, specific instances of it. 

There are many people throughout Biblical history who prayed in such a way.  First, they reminded themselves about God’s mighty and kind acts toward them before they turned their prayers and petitions to their current circumstances. Should we not do the same?

If you have time and the Spirit prompts you – dive into Isaiah 63:11-14, Exodus 33:1-15 or Numbers 14:13-19, 2 Chronicles 20:6-12; Daniel 9:15-19; Ezra 9:6-15 or Nehemiah 1:5-11.  Experience the way the saints prayed to God, clinging to His mighty acts and kindness to them. 

Now, turn to your own life: where have you experienced His kindnesses?  Let your mind go far and wide.  Remembering these tender kindnesses, remember that God’s character does not change.  He is loving and kind.  And, He desires to bring Himself glory through your circumstances.  Will you bring your current challenges before Him?

But the fruit of the Spirit is … kindness. (Gal. 5:25).  Love is … kind.  (1 Cor. 13:4).

The kindness and love of God our Saviour. Titus 3:4

How sweet it is to behold the Saviour communing with His own beloved people! There can be nothing more delightful than, by the Divine Spirit, to be led into this fertile field of delight. Let the mind for an instant consider the history of the Redeemer’s love, and a thousand enchanting acts of affection will suggest themselves, all of which have had for their design the weaving of the heart into Christ, and the intertwisting of the thoughts and emotions of the renewed soul with the mind of Jesus. When we meditate upon this amazing love, and behold the all-glorious Kinsman of the Church endowing her with all His ancient wealth, our souls may well faint for joy. Who is he that can endure such a weight of love? That partial sense of it which the Holy Spirit is sometimes pleased to afford, is more than the soul can contain; how transporting must be a complete view of it! When the soul shall have understanding to discern all the Saviour’s gifts, wisdom wherewith to estimate them, and time in which to meditate upon them, such as the world to come will afford us, we shall then commune with Jesus in a nearer manner than at present. But who can imagine the sweetness of such fellowship? It must be one of the things which have not entered into the heart of man, but which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Oh, to burst open the door of our Joseph’s granaries, and see the plenty which He hath stored up for us! This will overwhelm us with love. By faith we see, as in a glass darkly, the reflected image of His unbounded treasures, but when we shall actually see the heavenly things themselves, with our own eyes, how deep will be the stream of fellowship in which our soul shall bathe itself! Till then our loudest sonnets shall be reserved for our loving benefactor, Jesus Christ our Lord, whose love to us is wonderful, passing the love of women.  (CH Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Morning June 4, 2017).

Praise the LORD, O my soul.  O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.  He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.  He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. – He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work. – How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.  (Psalm 104:1-3, 13, 24).

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these things the wrath of God is coming.  You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.  But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these:  anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all.  Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  (Col. 3:1-12).

1. Where are we to set our hearts and minds?

2. Where is a believers life now hidden?  Who is a believer’s life?

3. Which of the items listed that belong to a believer’s old life and earthly nature do you tend to struggle with?  What is our new self being renewed by?

4. After putting off the old man, how is a believer to clothe themselves? 

5. Meditate upon the Psalm above – or another Psalm that points your heart toward God’s greatness – and ask the Lord to help you clothe yourself in the richness of his kindness for your day.

But the fruit of the Spirit is … kindness. (Gal. 5:25).  [W]hen the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.   He save us by the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3 – 7).  You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  When you, a mere man, pass judgment on [others] and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?  (Romans 2:1,3-4).   As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.   Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:1-7). 

1. What kindness has God shown you recently?

2. What virtues do you see occurring together in these verses? 

3.  According to these verses, what is God rich in?  How does His richness express itself?

How long, O LORD?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?  Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.  Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.  But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the LORD for he has been good to me.  (Psalm 13). When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.  They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants ofthe earth and avenge our blood?  Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.  (Rev. 6:9-11).  If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go.  If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed.  This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.  (Rev. 13:10).  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  (John 10:27-28).

I’ve heard it said numerous times from at least two pulpits: “patience is long-suffering and in order to be long-suffering, one has to have been long bothered.” 

Indeed, of the virtues we have studies so far, I feel I know very little of “patience.”  While I struggle with anxiety, at times I have most definitely felt the Lord grant peace.  I’ve experienced it, both the gut-churning absence and the beautiful fullness.  I can’t say that with patience.  In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard another Christian say, “I really have God’s patience about this decision.”  Or, “God has just filled me with patience for this person.”

I’ve prayed for patience.  I’ve prayed for the Lord to lead me to a place where I can understand patience better.  Even in the context of this Bible study, I spent a week or two specifically thinking about patience.  What I found was many opportunities to exercise patience with my family (opportunities I frankly fumbled as I muttered under my breath, “Lord, give me patience,” a few seconds before raising my voice and issuing an angry mandate).  No automatic Spirit-granted patience.

So, I did what I typically do when I’m struggling with something: break it down and analyze it.  In this case, I blew the dust of my old physical Strong’s Concordance and, after fumbling around a little bit to remember how it works, began looking up the verses in which the same Greek word (3115 – makrothumia – mak-roth-oo-mee’-ah; “longanimity”) occurs.  The majority of the verses we looked up in Day 1 are from this word.

Although not exactly the same word, the verses we looked up in day 2 are from the same root word – which is a combination of “makros” – long in place/time – and thumos “passion (as if breathing hard):  – fierceness, indignation, wrath” and “makrothumeo” which Strong’s says is “to be long-spirited…patiently endure.” (In case you want to pull out your Strong’s, too – it’s 3116/3114 respectively). 

1 Corinthians 13:4 is 3114.

It’s actually quite surprising to me that part of patience is a picture of anger long restrained – long restrained wrath.  I have a picture in my head of “patience” as some sort of zen-like figure at the top of a mountain who doesn’t actually experience the emotions which cause us mere humans anger.  Of someone who is so enlightened that things don’t bother or fluster them.  But when I hold up the Biblical definition of patience to the passages in Scripture of God’s patience – well, that enlightened iconic monk figure isn’t right.  I’m actually a little relieved, because it’s hard to reconcile the iconic monkish Jesus with the rage-filled Jesus who seized a whip and scattered the money changers in the Temple.

Despite this, because a human being’s anger is not what God’s is – we would be better off if we could keep ourselves from being affected by our anger.  The key to this, as the key to the fullness of the fruit of the Spirit is Jesus.  If we have a true view of God’s great love and our very real and present need for it – if we can truly grasp how great His forgiveness of us is – how can we be impatient with other people?  How can I lash out in anger against someone who has done me less wrong than I have done to God, considering His great and beautiful gift of salvation to me when I was actively against Him? 

And yet, there is no room in Scripture or life to pretend that things are not difficult.  To pretend that we never feel anger.  To fabricate good cheer in the face of suffering.  God’s word is filled with the cries of His people: how long?  How long will the non-believer prosper?  How long will lies fill the air?  How long will this gnarly situation last unresolved?  How long will I face this health issue?  Patience does not require us to pretend.  No.  Patience requires us to pour our heart and souls out to God, holding the broken things up to Him.  Repeatedly and as often as necessary.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Patience requires us to fix our eyes on Him and remind our souls of His great love and salvation. 

I’ve not come out the other side of this, but friends, it must be a messy, frustrating and difficult business.  Patience must be worked out – much like a muscle that is strengthened only by repeated strain.  As Dallas Willard says in The Divine Conspiracy, “when Paul writes to the Colossians, he prays that they will walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in every respect, bearing fruit in every good work and constantly growing in their knowledge of God (Col. 1:10).  Then he asks that they be ‘strengthened with all power, in terms of God’s glorious power’ (v. 11).  One might expect that this would be for the sake of some astounding outward manifestations!  But no, it is required to enable the Colossians to have “limitless endurance and long-suffering or patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has equipped us for a role in the destiny of the saints in the light.”  The most exalted outcome of submersion in the risen Christ is the transformation of the inner self to be like him.”  (p. 280).

Thank you, Jesus, that nothing can snatch us from your hand and that you promise to carry out the workmanship you have begun in us.

At the end of this week’s meditations about patience: what have you learned?  Where have you seen, heard or experienced patience?  What other passages of scripture has the Spirit brought to you about patience?

2. According to Colossians, how are the people to have great endurance and patience?

3. What traits appear with patience in the lists of Christian virtues in Ephesians and Colossians 3?  Why do you think that is?

My dear brothers, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.  Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says. (James 1:19-22).  You have heard that it was said, “do not murder” and “anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.”  But I tell you, that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. … and anyone who says to his brother, “you fool” is in the danger of the fires of hell.  (Matthew 5:21-22).  You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things…when you, a mere man pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the richness of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s patience leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:1, 3-4).

1. Why are we to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry?  How must we accept the word planted in us?

2. When we condemn others with our thoughts, what does Paul (in the Romans passage above) say we are essentially doing?  What does Jesus say about anger toward another in Matthew 5?

3.  When is the last time you have been angry?  What is your response?  What kinds of things typically make you angry?

But the fruit of the Spirit is … patience.  

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath – prepared for destruction?  (Romans 9:22).  Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation … (2 Peter 3:15). Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.  (1 Tim. 1:15-16). The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.  (2 Peter 3:9).   God is love.  (1 John 4:16).  Love is patient. (1 Cor. 13:4).

1. In the hypothetical question in Romans, what might God bear with great patience?  Why might he (in the hypothetic question) bear them with great patience?  (If you want to and have time, look back on Exodus 7-11).

2. What does God’s patience mean for us?

3. In 2 Peter – why is God patient, what is His desired outcome?

4. Based on these verses, how would you define patience?

Read Psalm 121

Again, I find the words of Eugene Peterson instructive:

Do you think the way to tell the story of the Christian journey is to describe its trials and tribulations?  It is not.  It is to name and to describe God who preserves, accompanies and rules us.

All the water in the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside.  Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us. … The only serious mistake we can make when illness comes, when anxiety threatens, when conflict disturbs our relationships with others is to conclude that God has gotten bored looking after us and has shifted his attention to a more exciting Christian, or that God has become disgusted with our meanderin obedience and decided to let us fend for ourselves  for a while, or that God has gotten too busy fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East to take time now to sort out the complicated mess we have gotten ourselves into.  That is the only serious mistake we can make.  It is the mistake that Psalm 121 prevents: the mistake of supposing that God’s interest in us waxes and wanes in response to our spiritual temperature…Psalm 121 says that the same faith that works in the big things works in the little things.  The God of Genesis 1 who brought light out of darkness is also the God of this day who guards you from every evil.  (Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 2d edition, 2000 InterVarsity Press, 43-44).