Patience- Part II

Did you think I forgot? I have actually continued to search out Scriptures about patience and also used synonyms like "perseverance" and "forbearance". Bible Gateway has been a tremendous help in all of this.

Now, where were we?

Oh yes, lets begin where we left off.

Forbearance...which is "refraining from something, forbearing conduct or quality; patient endurance; self-control, an abstaining from the enforcement of a right."

So, can I interject at this point, I don't like it when a word is defined with a form of the exact same word. I mean, "forbearing conduct or quality" does not help me at all. I'm so glad that I got that off my chest.

Fortunately Dictionary.com does define forbearing- "to refrain or abstain from; desist from; to keep back; withhold; obsolete, to endure; to refrain, hold back; to be patient or self-controlled when subject to annoyance or provocation." I also found forbearance defined as "the act of waiting, the exercise of patience."

Interestingly, I found forbearance used three different times in Scripture (Romans 3:21-26, Hebrews 3:9, and Hebrews 5:1-3 all in the Amp. version) and in each instance it is talking about God's forbearance. I don't know if that is significant or not, but it does make me wonder.

While all this makes sense, it doesn't look any easier than being patient. Which reminds me of a song my nephew use to have to sing when he began to get inpatient.

"Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry.
When you get impatient you only start to worry
Remember, remember that God is patient too
And, think of all the other times He's had to wait for you..."

Okay, He has had to wait on me a lot in my life. Maybe I should begin to sing this when I start to get impatient.

To be continued...