FAITH AND PATIENCE

That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through FAITH and PATIENCE inherit the promises – Hebrews 6:12

FAITH and PATIENCE make an unconquerable combination. The two rarely work in isolation of one another. Faith thrives on the soil of patience. Faith and patience must be pursued with unalloyed diligence. The pursuit of faith and patience brooks no apathy or slothfulness. The Word admonishes: “that ye be not slothful…” Saints through the ages have ingrained footprints of faith and patience on eternal pathways. We modern-day believers must follow through to perfection.

Faith and patience secure the performance of God’s promises. Indeed, gems of PATIENCE are produced, processed and perfected in the FURNACE of FAITH. Patience is a by-product of the trial of faith. James 1:2-4 admonished: “count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the TRYING of YOUR FAITH worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” By the power of faith, the Lord enables us to “pass through” tough times, forge triumphantly through turbulent times, and wade through mighty storms and tempests. However dark the tunnel or tough the trial may be, faith girded with patience would never give up, drown or die.

The RACE of LIFE demands the force of faith and the strength of patience: “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us RUN with patience THE RACE that is set before us” (Heb.11:1). Followers of faith and patience are guaranteed the inheritance of divine promises. Through faith and patience, the Lord turns tough times into platforms for our promotion, challenges into channels for our breakthroughs, and the mess in our lives into His message of mercy. Our Loving Father squeezes out sweet lemonade out of the bitter ‘lemon-like’’ events of our lives.

Patience often involves waiting; and waiting is hard, but it can be extremely rewarding: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles…” (Isa.40:31). Waiting is the season for soul-making, the time to develop the quieter virtues of life – character, endurance, humility, submission and persistence. Such virtues take the longest to learn, are the last to be learned, and, perhaps, can only be learned through divine delays! That’s why the Bible says: “ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Heb. 10:36).