Patience and Longsuffering - Part of Perseverance
Rom 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
Rom 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
2Co 6:1 And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain--
2Co 6:2 for He says, "AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU." Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION"--
2Co 6:3 giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited,
2Co 6:4 but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
2Co 6:5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger,
2Co 6:6 in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love,
2Co 6:7 in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left,
2Co 6:8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true;
2Co 6:9 as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death,
2Co 6:10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.
2Co 6:11 Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Eph 4:1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
Eph 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,
Eph 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
1Ti 1:16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
2Ti 3:10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance,
2Ti 3:11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!
Jas 5:10 As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
1Pe 2:20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
2Pe 3:13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
2Pe 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
2Pe 3:15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
2Pe 3:16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
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Brothers and Sisters, we should all reflect on the patience and longsuffering of GOD in dealing with each one of us when we were lost and when we sin. We are to emulate HIS patience and longsuffering because they also relate to HIS Love for us. "Perseverance" does come full circle back to "Love", and it is a part of Christian character that we should display to others. By "Display", I'm not talking about acting or make-believe, rather real and genuine. So, where does a Christian obtain the elements of "Perseverance"? Is it from human nature, or is it from GOD and something we pray for HIM to give us? Don't we all know the answer to this question?
Love In Christ,
Tom
Matthew 22:36-40 NASB "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."