Patience follows Loyalty and Courage or we could call it Endurance

 Patience in the Six Marks of a Christian

" Six Marks of a Christian"- Patience

Gospel for today Matthew 13:24-30;34... gives us a parable about heaven. Wheat and tares look alike. They are so alike in the initial stages if you pluck you will take out wheat when you mean to take out the poisonous weeds, tares in KJV. The story goes we must not pluck out the weeds/tares because they grow along with the wheat and we may mistakenly take out wheat."Let both grow together until

the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first

and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn." Matthew 13:30

The harvest is the end of time when " The Son of Man shall send forth his angels..." Judgment will come. " There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" V. 43 " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

We should learn to be patient then as the account above seems to advise us. Shatford says that there are some times in life when we have to have patience, but althought it is " absolutely necessary,...but also very difficult."

First, there are things we do not understand, yet if we rush , we may lose the situation and the person. Perhaps it is us. A young man came up to Canon Shatford and said " he had just read a pamphlet of fifty pages, a criticism of the Old Testament. And he said, ' My faith goes by the board because I cannot understand these things '." An impatient batter may throw away the game.

Secondly, patience is also needed when we face disappointment. " I measure a man not by the number of his falls, but by the times he gets on his feet and goes forward to the fight." - Shatford in Six Marks of a Christian. We just feel that all is lost. Someone has disappointed us, or perhaps we rushed a decision and feel we made the wrong choice. We cannot get out of this by giving up. We must persevere and as the Letter to the Hebrews says, " Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." 12:1 How many of us have known the valley of disppointment.....this or that goes a way we did not plan for a reason we cannot fathom. We are lost in our disappointment and sadness.

Thirdly, people are walking when we think they should run! " I like the teacher of the class who takes a lot of pains with the dull and backward pupils. And if God did not take a lot of pains with some of us who are so stupid and slow, I wonder what would become of us." Shatford This is especially difficult when we deal with spiritual matters. We cannot always see the progress very well. The wheat and the tares are growing together. Everything we think is fine, and then we learn the truth. There are some who never truly believed in Jesus. They played, they acted. ( Original meaning of the word----hypocrites. )Inwardly there is not a change in the soul.

" He that sowed the good seed is the Son of man" Mt. 13:37 The Epistle said in Romans 8:18 says that the " sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.....For we are saved by hope (v.24)---but hope that is seen is not hope" VS 25 " But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience....." Greek word here is hypomonḗ (from 5259 /hypó, "under" and 3306 /ménō, "remain, endure") – properly, remaining under, endurance; steadfastness, especially as God enables the believer to "remain (endure) under" the challenges He allots in life.--Bible Hub on line

Patience is actually an active word, not passive. " It means one who is willing to suffer, who does not take things too easily, who is willing to manifest in his life a capacity for endurance, for suffering, for restraint, for self-control."- Shatford

Some tell us to " make it snappy". When in the military they used to say, " BE bright, BE brief, BE Gone" Isaiah 28:16 says , " He that believeth shall not make haste." ( not hurry, not be dismayed)

" Because we are not patient we lose a great deal of the joy and the glory and the real spiritual value of our living."- Shatford

In conclusion, we are human. We do not know what God is doing in a particular circumstance or situation. Sometimes it takes great patience to know what God wants us to do. We do not know what God is planting and who is receiving His Word that bears fruit unto eternal life. Our position must be as Christ did---to sow the seeds of the Word and wait for the Holy Spirit to bring the results.

We need His patience as His good seeds are being sowed in hearts. We pray the devil will not have his way with people, but not all receive the Word on hearts of good ground. The deceitfulness of riches and the cares of the world choke out the Word.

Be patient and see what God will do in His soil.