Our LORD loves you and me with a love that is patient beyond our understanding. The patient love of God beckons us to turn from our sins and abide in Him. God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).

How has God been patient with you?

“The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.” (Psalm 145:8-9 ESV)

Patience of God the Father

Moses met with God on Mount Sinai for 40 days. God gave Moses the first set of tablets that contained the Ten Commandments. Moses went down to the people and found them worshiping a golden calf and having an orgy. He got so mad that he smashed the tablets on the ground. After Moses prayed for 40 days and nights, God told him to cut two more tablets and meet with Him on Mount Sinai to receive a second set of the Ten Commandments.

The patience of God led Him to give the Israelites a second set of tablets.

Moses prepared the tablets and walked up Mount Sinai.

“The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’” (Exodus 34:5-6 ESV)

God is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth—even with people like you and me.

The word for “longsuffering” means to be slow in anger, to be patient.

Our loving Father was truly slow to anger with the Israelites, and He’s also patient with us.

After centuries of patiently revealing His love to the world, our heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus, to take on flesh and walk this earth, teaching, healing, loving, and blessing. He wept because the people didn’t understand. And He patiently endured the cross for you and me. He was buried, but three days later, He rose from the dead. The longsuffering of Jesus brought us salvation.

Patience of God the Son, Jesus

What a loving Teacher we have in Jesus! He spent 3 ½ years living with the disciples, walking the dusty roads, eating, teaching, face-to-face with them … 3 ½ years of miracles.

Jesus revealed Himself progressively to the disciples as He does to you and me.

What a patient Savior we have! He slowly revealed Himself to the disciples, giving them spiritual milk …. like a loving mother nurses her baby and puts her baby in a crib next to her bed.

As the child grows, the mother feeds her baby solid food. She puts the baby on a blanket and sits down to play with her.

Next thing you know, the baby is crawling and exploring the house, and the mother is taking the toddler by the hand and walking her around the house. You know the rest … climbing … running … and more.

From a safe spot in the bedroom to unimaginable adventures with God, that’s how we see God revealing Himself to us – patiently and progressively.

Patience of Jesus in His Teachings

Jesus used parables to tell us of God’s love and patience for us. In Luke 15, we read about the prodigal son.

The younger son asked his father for his inheritance even though the father was alive. The father gave it to him, and the son went off and spent it on loose living. When he lost everything, and his “friends” abandoned him, he found himself hungry and destitute. He decided to go back to his father and ask him if he could be his servant.

But his father was patiently waiting for him. When the father saw his son in the distance, he ran to welcome him home. He even threw a party for him.

The father patiently waited until his son was able to understand and accept the father’s love.

That’s a picture of God’s love and patience as He waits for us to turn to Him.

There was still more that Jesus wanted to tell the disciples. But they weren’t ready to hear it.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12 ESV)

Patience of God the Holy Spirit

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior. He is patient with us, revealing more about God, His love, and His work.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26 ESV]

And the Holy Spirit helps strengthen us. He also intercedes for us when we don’t know what to pray.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27 ESV)

Have you been in circumstances that left you clueless on how to pray?

Be still and meditate on God. Tell Him that you don’t know what to pray, and the Holy Spirit will intercede for you.

Abide in His love, His wisdom, and His works in you.

Abiding in God’s Patience

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5 ESV)

As we study the Word of God, we begin to understand that God is working in us and that He is pursuing a love relationship with us.

We pray, and we hear God invite us to join Him in His work.

As we fellowship with other Christians, we unite with them in serving God and others.

Because of the patience of God our Father, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit our Helper, we are saved from our sins, blessed, transformed, and united with other believers as we abide in Jesus.

“Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.”

(2 Thessalonians 3:5 NKJV)

Related Links

“Love-Locked Living“

“Slow to Anger: The Beauty of God’s Perfect Patience” (Scott Hubbard, Managing Editor, Desiring God). August 8, 2022.

All pronoun references to God are capitalized.