Patience is a beautiful descriptor of love. It describes a heart with room and with flexibility. In the Bible, the word for patience is sometimes translated as long-suffering, which means it is willing to suffer, willing to bear discomfort, willing to allow time to pass and not demand immediate answers.
Patience is the quality of bearing offenses and injuries without anger or revenge. It is impossible to do in our own willpower. I know this from experience. It must come from God, from that "hesed" love.
Hesed is one of the Hebrew words used in the Bible for God’s love.
"Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love (hesed) for you will not be shaken." ~Isaiah 54:10
"The Lord did not set His love (hashaq) on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves (hesed) you." ~Deuteronomy 7:7-8
Hesed is the forever covenantal, always unconditional, unswervingly loyal, kind love of inseparable bonding, of eternal attachment. In other words, it is attachment love. A love committed forever to you, your growth, your best.
When Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthian church, he was describing for them the most excellent way of living. It is the way of love. Some translations say it this way: Love is large and incredibly patient. Love suffers long. Love never gives up. Love endures with patience and sincerity. These various translations try to capture the essence of patience in the context of love.
Patience is powerful enough to change a situation, yet we can’t “use it” as a manipulation tool to do so. We embody it because it is a Kingdom Quality. And because it is what creation is eagerly longing to see. It is what reflects the very essence of God: God is love.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. ~2 Corinthians 3:18
Let’s look at Jesus. Let’s look at the patience of God, loving a world bent on destroying itself through selfishness.
When we look at the love of God, what we see reflected back is what transforms our own hearts.
Patience is the quality of bearing offenses and injuries without anger or revenge. It is impossible to do in our own willpower. I know this from experience. It must come from God, from that "hesed" love.
Hesed is one of the Hebrew words used in the Bible for God’s love.
"Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love (hesed) for you will not be shaken." ~Isaiah 54:10
"The Lord did not set His love (hashaq) on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves (hesed) you." ~Deuteronomy 7:7-8
Hesed is the forever covenantal, always unconditional, unswervingly loyal, kind love of inseparable bonding, of eternal attachment. In other words, it is attachment love. A love committed forever to you, your growth, your best.
When Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthian church, he was describing for them the most excellent way of living. It is the way of love. Some translations say it this way: Love is large and incredibly patient. Love suffers long. Love never gives up. Love endures with patience and sincerity. These various translations try to capture the essence of patience in the context of love.
Patience is powerful enough to change a situation, yet we can’t “use it” as a manipulation tool to do so. We embody it because it is a Kingdom Quality. And because it is what creation is eagerly longing to see. It is what reflects the very essence of God: God is love.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. ~2 Corinthians 3:18
Let’s look at Jesus. Let’s look at the patience of God, loving a world bent on destroying itself through selfishness.
When we look at the love of God, what we see reflected back is what transforms our own hearts.
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