May 26, Strength to Wait with Patience.

May you be strengthened with all power

according to his glorious might

for all endurance and patience with joy.

Colossians 111.

Strengthened is the right word.

The Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Colossi

that they would be strengthened with all power

according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience.

Colossians 111.

Patience is the evidence of an inner strength.

Impatient people are weak and therefore dependent on external supports,

like schedules that go just right, and circumstances that support their fragile hearts.

Their outbursts of oaths and threats and harsh criticisms of the culprits who crossed their plans

do not sound weak, but that noise is all a camouflage of weakness.

Patience demands tremendous inner strength.

For the Christian, this strength comes from God.

That is why Paul is praying for the Colossians.

He's asking God to empower them for the patient endurance that the Christian life requires.

But when he says that the strength of patience is according to God's glorious might, he doesn't just mean that it takes divine power to make a person patient. He means that

faith in this glorious might is the channel through which the power for patience comes.

Patience is indeed a fruit of the Holy Spirit, Galatians 522,

...