I have been brought back to this over and over again. Especially recently. I am really struggling right now and am going through some looooooooong suffering. Sometimes it feels like it will never end. I hope this devotional encourages you…
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. KJV
LONGSUFFERING
The original Greek word for longsuffering is makrothumia (mak-roth-oo-mee’-ah) and means, forbearance, fortitude, patience, patiently
I want to look at the dictionary meanings for the following…
Patience ~ The bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain with out complaint, loss of temper, or anger. Quiet steady perseverance; even tempered.
Forbearance ~ Patient endurance, self control. An obstaining from the enforcement of a right.
Fortitude ~ Mental and emotional strength in facing adversity, danger, or temptation.
I don’t know about you, but patience is not my strong point. However, God gives us the ability to have these things. We can have patience when we ask for it. The problem is that we don’t realize that our answer requires us to “be” patient.
Let me explain…We ask for patience. God gives us children. After we get them we look up to Heaven and beg God to give us patience with these children. We don’t realize that the children are the answer. Children are one way that God uses to teach us patience. We cannot get patience without the lessons. We must learn patience. Once we embrace that we will see progress in the area of patience in our lives.
Another way that God gives us lessons in patience is through trials and adversity. The way to pass these lessons is to go through them without complaint. We must train ourselves to go through the storms not fight them.
You must understand that we all already have the fruits of the spirit available to us. In order to see them manifested In our lives we must submit to God. In the case of longsuffering (patience) we must embrace our difficulties and go through them without complaint. We must understand that they will only last a season and we will make it to the other side. It will go MUCH quicker if we go through it with patient endurance.
Remember something…the Israelites took 40 years to take an 11 day trip!
Why?
Murmuring and complaining.
Let’s Pray,
Daddy God, thank You for Your Word of Truth. Thank You that You have given me the strength to endure. I pray that You help me to recognize opportunities to be quiet and endure. Help me to see and understand when You are trying to teach me the very thing I beg for. Help me to stay strong and not lose faith and hope. Help me, Daddy. Please. I love You, Lord. I want my life to shine for You. Thank You so much for choosing me to be Your very own. In Jesus Mighty Name, Amen.
In His Love and Service,
Lara 
Copyright © Lara Velez, All Rights Reserved
Great devotional, Lara. I definitely needed to hear this one. Lately I’ve wanted to do a lot of complaining, blaming, and most definitely WHINING!
But you are right, there ARE lessons to be learned through all of this. We just need to sit back and go to Daddy so that we can simply learn and be in His will.
It’s hard to wait. Patience gets week. But, you are right, “we must embrace our difficulties and go through them without complaint”.
After I lost my child, —4 days after he was born, he went to be with the Lord—, my only desire is for God to give me another change to have other baby, other pregnancy. And… is hard to wait… with patience.
But, every word, every song, every detail… help me to focus and wait…patiently…long-suffering!
I never thought about it like that (that patience=longsuffering). I am also not a very patient person but now that I reflect, I see so many situations in which God opened the door for me to become more patient during trials.