The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Longsuffering"
The longer we know and walk with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the more patience becomes a primary virtue upon which to focus.
"But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering" (Psalm 86:15).
We refer not to our own need for patience, but rather to our Heavenly Father's "longsuffering" with us. We are all such works in progress, and sometimes, works in digress. The most godly among us would be the first to tell us this, that "the Lord has been so very kind and patient, and oh, how He continues to be!" How true this is, and how much His merciful patience becomes a primary awareness as we more and more know our Father.
While how we respond - or not - to the Lord has much to do with our growing personal awareness of His patience, the goal of His purpose in our life even more informs our amazement regarding His gracious mercy.
"Walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).
"Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into His image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).
Our Father purposes to make us like His Son. This is the work in progress, which means that no matter how far we have come, a long path of growth in grace lies before us. Even a cursory reading of the New Testament tells us that to conform our character and way to that of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, our Father must not, cannot, and will not stop in His ongoing work. He promises to continue in all who have believed, and thus, we will never stop being increasingly amazed by how He presses on as He impresses the spiritual and moral image of His Christ within and upon us. "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
No matter how far we have come, we have much, much further to go. The inestimable glory of our Savior tells us this. Even more, we can be sure a faithful Father continues this blessedly "good work" in us. Much patience is required, His patience, and the more we realize the longsuffering Heart that began this work in progress, the more we will patiently submit ourselves to His purpose. God could do nothing better for us than to make us like His Son. We can do nothing better than to focus on His faithful and ongoing patience whereby our enduring ever flows from growing awareness of His endurance.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified."
(Romans 8:28-29)
Weekly Memory Verse
But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering.
(Psalm 86:15)
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