Stream or download Bright and shining lights in the Bible #5
Now let us see the second thing we obtain from reading and believing the Bible.
It is PATIENCE. “ . . . . . that we through patience.”
The word translated ‘patience’ in Rom 15:4 means in the New Testament, the endurance of a man who is not made to swerve from his purpose and his loyalty to God and His truth, not even by the greatest trials and sufferings. This patience comes from our reading, studying and believing the Bible.
1. As we read the Bible we are enabled to bear patiently with life’s trials.
Waiting for a bus can create impatience but when it appears around a corner, suddenly impatience goes. The Bible shows us that we are not waiting in vain, 1 Corinthians 15:58.
The vine encounters winds and buffetings of the weather. But it is tied to a support and so can stand the buffeting. What the Bible tells us enables us to have patience and gives us comfort in our troubles! “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy,” James 5:11. In the story of Job we ‘see the end, the purpose that God worked out in his trials!’ Job 42:12.
We learn that the Lord rescues His people from trial and sustains them and this truth gives us comfort.
2. In life we shall ALL have trials. So said the Lord Jesus. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” John 16:33. We cannot live in a world filled with enemies without encountering opposition and trial. BUT, the Lord Jesus our DELIVERER has conquered the world so we may run to Him in our trouble. “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe,” Proverbs 18:10. See also Ps 34:19.