I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love— Ephesians 4:1-2 (NKJV).
The Lord is long-suffering towards all men. Job was a successful man with a great family and wealth, but lost everything; he is the ultimate example of one who suffered long. Job asked: what is my end that I suffer long? (Job 6:11) Don’t we ask the same question during our struggles? A better question is: What is our attitude when we are going through trials (when we need to be longsuffering)?
Longsuffering is the ability to endure through much pain, and difficult circumstances without complaining. To hold our temper, despite our circumstances, the ability to trust God (and learn to lean on Him). The confidence that He will provide comfort, and give us strength to get through.
In the world today, we face many hardships, but we must not give up or give in, we must hold on to God, even in the hardest of times. Because there will be times we can’t see clearly, there will be days when we have trouble(s) on every side, every kind of persecutions and stress. It is during those times that we will need to demonstrate our longsuffering. How do we deal with those that irritate us in our work places, homes, the grocery store, when driving, when others make mistakes, or someone offends us, or when others inconvenience us, and so on?
Christ does not ask us to do anything He hasn’t done, or is impossible for us to do. The truth is that God is longsuffering towards each of us in our mess ups, mistakes and offences. He is very patient (longsuffering) with us. He did not get irritated with the wrong others did to Him, and sent Him to the cross.
Longsuffering is something the world lacks, this causes people to become angry, and commit road rage. We want everything fast, we are impatient when traffic lights take too long, we say things out of anger. However, in order for God to show us longsuffering, we need to also show it towards others too (Colossians 3:12-13). Paul also demonstrated much longsuffering when he was beaten, whipped, imprisoned, in distress by others (2 Corinthians 11:22-33 But at the same time, Paul was as human like us, and there were likely times he wanted to give up, but instead he relied on the power of the Holy Spirit, and endured with God as his strength, through thick and thin demonstrating the fruit of longsuffering.
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