October 17

You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. — Heb 10:36 BSB

Why do we need patience? Because, as the Lord’s people, we will surely face many trials. The Lord sends us afflictions so that He might give us the grace of patience to bear them. But oh, what a rebellious heart we carry in our chest! How full of perverseness, peevishness, and self-will! How quickly our temper flares up and our irritable minds are stirred by the smallest trifle! How little patience we have under the trials that God sees fit to lay upon us! Through these experiences, we learn just how much we need patience and how it is not a fruit of our natural soil. The lack of patience makes our soul long for it. And when the Lord gives us the grace to submit to His will and shows us how profitable these trials are for our souls, we see His merciful hand even in the heaviest afflictions.

Sometimes, through feeling peevish and rebellious, we come to understand our need for patience. At other times, through feeling submissive and enjoying the sweetness of patience, we see what a blessed grace it is. There is hardly any grace we need more every day. We need it toward God when He crosses our plans, thwarts our desires, and hides His reasons for afflicting us behind a thick cloud that neither faith nor prayer can penetrate.

We need patience with one another, with the world, with our families, and with the Church of God. We need patience when something is said or done that hurts our minds, wounds our feelings, irritates our tempers, and stirs us up to retaliate. And what a mercy it is, under these sharp trials, to have patience, following the example of the blessed Lord, “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.”