Title Patient in Suffering
Contents
Hymn: 510 'In the Garden of Gethsemane'
Meditation: The saints must persevere in the midst of suffering. Because suffering makes us persevere and mature.
Confession of Faith: Apostles' Creed
Text: “Perfect patience, that ye be perfect and complete, in nothing… ” (James 1:4).
Patience means 'to endure to the end without giving up halfway through'. How sad would it be if a marathon runner ran 40 km hard and gave up with the last few meters left? Life of faith is like a marathon. Good things happen, but difficult things happen that you don't expect. Unbearable things happen. That's when patience is needed.
A father went shopping with his son. The son picked up the basket. The father picks things up and puts them in the shopping cart, and the son whines and follows him. An old woman who was watching this was sympathetic and asked, "Son, isn't it heavy?" Then the son answers. "No. Dad knows how much I can lift," I replied.
God knows how far we can endure. Even when the situation is difficult and difficult, we must be able to trust and be patient, trusting that God helps us and that He has a good plan.
Even though Joseph was sold to his brothers and became a slave, he did not despair even though he was falsely framed and imprisoned. Because they trusted God. The eagle builds a nest on a high cliff, then fills the nest with its feathers or something soft, laying eggs and hatching them. However, when the young grow a little, they flap their wings to blow away all the soft things in the nest, and instead put a pointed thorn tree to stab the young. Eventually, the chicks who can't stand it will leave the nest and learn to flap their wings. You can't be a real eagle if you can't stay in the nest and fly.
Be patient in the midst of suffering. Go through the training of God. I hope you have perfect patience. So, in the name of the Lord, I bless you that you will be raised up as a person of faith who lacks nothing.
Prayer: We believe that God has a plan in the midst of trials, and through those trials, He develops us into perfect people. Help me to keep my faith strong in the midst of tribulation. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.