Patient Love

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 37, Patient Love.

Listen to these words carefully. Paul writes: "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful." First Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 4 and 5.

Notice where Paul starts. He had every word available to him — strength, courage, faith, generosity. And he led with patience. That is not an accident. Patience comes first because it is what holds everything else together. Love that cannot wait is not really love — it is convenience. And God knows, better than anyone, that people take time to grow. You took time. I took time. The people around you are going to take time too.

And right behind patience comes kindness — because patience on its own can turn cold. It can become mere restraint, just the absence of harm. Kindness is patience that decides to move. It doesn't wait for someone to deserve it. It takes the initiative. It goes first with good, before anyone asks.

Then Paul turns the mirror around. Read the list again, but put your own name where it says "love." "So-and-so is patient. So-and-so is kind. So-and-so is not irritable or resentful." At some point the sentence is going to break down. And that is not there to shame you — it is there to show you exactly where God's grace still has work to do in you. Not condemnation. An invitation.

There is one phrase here that stops me every time: "it is not resentful." The word in the original language means not keeping a record, not filing the offense away. Love tears up the ledger. You know the one — bitterness loves to keep it, everything logged, dated, saved for the right moment. Love does not operate that way. It does not collect the wrongs done to it. It lets them go.

And it can do that because of this: we were first loved this way. Before you were ever patient with anyone, God was patient with you — with your slowness, your wandering, your failures. Before you forgave anyone, you were forgiven a debt you could never have repaid. That is what Paul is driving at: people who have been loved like this learn to love like this. The love you have received is the love you have to give.

And then the text comes down from the heights and lands right in the middle of your week. Because love is not a concept. Love has a name. Love has a face. There is one specific person — you already know who it is — who stretches your patience further than anyone else. Who knows just how to hit the wrong note at the wrong moment. Who makes you want to open that ledger.

So here is what I want you to do today. Say that person's name — out loud, or quietly in your heart. Pray for them right now, genuinely, not through gritted teeth, but a real prayer that asks God to bless them. And then choose one concrete act of kindness to show them today. Just one. Not because they have earned it — but because you were loved when you had not earned it either.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.