Great Endurance and Patience

"...So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ...." Colossians 1:10-11 TNIV

As we study through this passage, continue to notice the "so" every so often. It is like an unfolding rose, one petal unfolding leads to something precious inside etc.... However, in this unfolding, there is no end to the discoveries of things precious. All the power is given to those who come into a full-experiential, continually revealing, knowledge of God Himself for great purpose - that we may have great endurance and patience.

We have been tempted to think that living in Jesus would mean basically that we would be exempt from life itself. We have, of course, found that not to be true. The reality of all the Lord gives us is not seen best in a life that has nothing ever being wrong and messed up. Instead, it is seen best in a back-drop of regular living, dying, heart-ache and opportunity for sin and distress. Here, in the "hot-bed of life itself" is the grace, love and glory of God best seen.

We learn best by contrasts. We know what light is because we experience darkness. This was first demonstrated for God's people at the creation in Genesis 1. First there was darkness (where did that come from since God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all - all attempts to explain fail); with the back drop of darkness, God said, "Light be, and light was."

So His glory, love, grace, hope and on and on - all are best seen as we live life and experience its fullness. So all this power is now given to those who walk deeper and deeper in Him so they will stick to Him even more completely in patience. This patience is the ability to wait and trust in Him. It is long-suffering, long tempered, which is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is not an attribute the human being can possess if they do not walk deeply with God. It is a by-product of that relationship, for it is an attribute of God Himself.

So we see, if we sincerely desire to allow the glory of God to be seen in our lives, we will lean, trust and expect from our God as we live life, always getting to know Him more and more and more and more and more... "great endurance and patience."