Love is Patient

Post date: Oct 28, 2016 6:44:07 PM

Welcome to Deeply Rooted, a new space for Wycliffe USA to come together corporately around spiritual formation. What do we mean by spiritual formation? Robert Mulholland, emeritus professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary, describes it as “the process of being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others.” We are all on a spiritual journey as God grows us individually and as a body as we participate in the work of Bible translation together. Deeply Rooted isn’t meant to try and take the place of the other avenues God is using to grow you personally. It’s an opportunity for us to grow together as an organization alongside that personal growth.

Each month, our Deeply Rooted site will invite you to reflect on the monthly theme through a variety of lenses. There will be a blog post with reflections from within the Wycliffe environment. There will be related Scripture to consider around the theme. There will be links to related videos and articles/blog posts online from different perspectives. You’ll also find a place to download the desktop of the month if you’d like to use the theme on your computer as a handy reminder. You’ll also hear these themes in other places around our organization, such as through Entermission and other events during the month. Since each of us is in a different place in our journey, we believe that giving you a number of places to interact, engage, and just soak in the topic will help you connect with what may be most meaningful to you right now where you are.

You’ll also notice that our blog has a comment section below. If you know other great resources or if you’d like to start a conversation, please join in there and share with one another. We certainly know that we haven’t come across every possible resource and thought around these themes!

Finally, you may not be aware that Wycliffe USA has a Spiritual Development team that provides training, consultation, individual and group growth opportunities, and many other resources. They can even help you plan a personal or team spiritual retreat! For more information, contact Doug Haltom or Sue Russell.

Thanks for joining in and participating as we grow together!

Love is Patient

“Even when our faith isn’t consistent, God’s patience is always constant.”

--Renee Swope

Maybe you’ve had this kind of experience before. You go through a season where you notice just how patient you’ve become. You wait patiently in a line when others around you are noticeably agitated. You show patience to someone who’s struggling with trying to figure something out (and you notice how patient you’re being!) And just when you feel like you’ve reached a whole new you when it comes to patience, you find yourself in a situation where all of it goes right out the window. You’re rushing, you’re irritated, and you’ve just snapped at the people closest to you.

We’re all patient...up to a point.

God’s relationship with humanity is all about His patience with us. In Exodus, He reminds us that as the God of compassion and mercy, He is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6). Because of the Lord’s patience, He gives people time to be saved (2 Peter 3:15). Pause and think about that. We can be saved, our loved ones, people from every tribe and nation and tongue, because our God is patient with us. Patience isn’t just a nice virtue. It’s an essential characteristic of a God who has made a way for us.

Patience is also an essential characteristic of how we must treat one another out of Christian love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. If they will know we are Christians by our love, and love is patient, then we have a responsibility to not consider our patience or impatience with others as trivial. Our patience is a reflection of our love or lack of love for one another.

So, for the month of January, let’s take time to reflect on God’s incredible patience with us. In those times when we notice our own impatience, let’s consider the root behind that impatience. What is it telling me about my motivations? My areas of unconsidered sin? My ability to love others? Let’s ask God to help us to grow in love for one another, and that they might experience that growing love through our patience.

"Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others; for thou hast many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou art not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?"

--Thomas a Kempis