Learning about the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Forbearance
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22 (NIV)
We are in the fourth text of the series “Learning about the Fruit of the Spirit”, in which we will delve into what is written in the Bible about the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God, mentioned in the book of Galatians and today we will learn more about forbearance. And I would like to start by leaving the passage in Galatians 6: 9 as a reminder: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up“.
Forbearance
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Forbearance is the characteristic or quality of greatness of spirit, a person who faces adversity with courage, in the Bible we see that this is a virtue of those who are good and generous and have faith in God to help solve their problems. We may seem weak in the eyes of the world or even foolish in maintaining this conduct, but in truth this fruit of the Spirit, helps us to have discernment and wisdom to resolve adversities with the wisdom that comes from above.
Mercy, patience, tolerance and self-control, are words that relate directly to this fruit and are essential characteristics for those who have been saved and in Christ is a new creature, because our Heavenly Father is long-suffering, has patience with us even with people making so many mistakes . God has so much mercy on us that he gave his only son to die on the cross for you and me.
I keep thinking, if our God has mercy on us, even with all the sins we carry, why can’t we have that same attitude towards our neighbors? We need to be kind and generous, even in adverse situations. In my life I had two great examples of people full of this patience, my grandmother and my grandfather, I always admired their way of dealing with life and the patience they had in teaching and exhorting in love.
I am sure that, like me, you have met people who impress by your conduct and know their secret? A deep and daily relationship with our Lord. I don’t remember spending time with my grandparents and they didn’t talk about God’s love. When we go out with a lot, we tend to cling to his personality characteristics, even without realizing it, the same happens when we have our Savior as best friend and greatest example.
When we go through adversity, it is useless to be angry, God acts at the right time, he does not forget us, in fact it is we who forget the faithfulness of those we serve. As it is written in Deuteronomy 32: 4: “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.”.
Finally, I would like to say that the Lord gives us forbearance and remember that anyone who develops patience and kindness reaps many fruits! In Proverbs 25:15, it is written: “Patience can persuade a prince, and soft speech can break bones.”
God bless you!
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