TOPIC:“Patience - The Virtue We All Need”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Colossians 3:12 (NIV)
“Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience”
If you were to ask me what is the one virtue we need above all others I would say it is love. It certainly is the most important one. But close to love is patience. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul states in I Corinthians 13:4 that “Love is very patient.” In other words, if we have love we will have patience.
We tend to be very impatient people. To prove my point that patience is the one virtue we all need, let me give you a test to see how patient you really are. Here are the questions?
1) Do you get impatient when there is a slow driver in front of you?
2) Do you get impatient when you have to wait in line at the post office,
supermarket or doctor's office?
3) Do you get impatient waiting for the light to change?
4) Do you get impatient when you can't figure out the instructions
to something you have purchased?
5) Do you get impatient when something is not done right the first time?
6) Do you get impatient if a person doesn't call or contact you?
7) Do you get impatient when things don't go your way or with someone
who annoys you?
What I am trying to demonstrate with this test is that there are lots of ways people and events try our patience. And this can be especially true of members of our own family. Sometimes they can drive you up a wall by some little thing they do.
Our son, Jeff, is very musical. When he was about thirteen years of age he learned to play the drums. Almost at every meal he would tap his fingers on the kitchen table as we ate. It was very annoying and Eleanor and I had all we could do to control our feelings.
Now we believers live in a very angry world. And this anger has crept into the church. So we find split churches, broken fellowships, fractured friendships and slanderous talk. Temper, if not controlled, can be a very destructive thing.
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