THE PATIENCE OF THE LORD

“You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” – Jeremiah 12:1

Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his book “A Theology of History,” writes the following about patience:

“God intended man to have all good, but in . . . God’s time; and therefore all disobedience, all sin, consists essentially in breaking out of time. Hence the restoration of order by the Son of God had to be the annulment of that premature snatching at knowledge, the beating down of the hand outstretched toward eternity, the repentant return from a false, swift transfer of eternity to a true, slow confinement in time. . . . Patience [is] the basic constituent of Christianity . . . the power to wait, to persevere, to hold out, to endure to the end, not to transcend one’s own limitations, not to force issues by playing the hero or the titan, but to practice the virtue that lies beyond heroism, the meekness of the lamb which is led.”

The Lord is patient and desires all men and women to come to a saving knowledge of Him. Today, in prayer, praise the Lord for His patience toward the wicked and pray for those who have not yet come to know Jesus.

“God bears with the wicked, but not forever.” – Miguel de Cervantes

God’s Word: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” – Isaiah 55:7