How to be Longsuffering

    "When you're tempted to lose patience with someone, remember how much patience God shows you."

     Patience is a word that can often be translated longsuffering. This word is used a lot in the Bible and a lot of times it's referring to God being longsuffering toward us. I realized I didn't really know much about what it meant to be longsuffering. The word means, slow to wrath and it's associated with "great kindness" and "plenteous in mercy." The dictionary defines it as: having or showing patience in spite of troubles, especially those caused by other people. Sorta funny how if you flip the word it's suffering long! The opposite is impatient or intolerant. So after studying the word, I came up with 4 tips on how to be longsuffering towards those around us.

1. Remember God is patient with YOU

But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Psalm 86:10

We are all sinners. We have all missed the mark and fallen short of the glory of God. Nobody could stand before God and get into Heaven only because they were somehow better than someone else. In reality, we are all equal in our unrighteousness. We must remember how longsuffering God is toward us! I know that's something I take for granted so often. God forgives me despite the fact that I sin daily. Thank goodness His love isn't dependent on my faithfulness, because we all sin and we all make mistakes. When we remember how patient and longsuffering God is with us every day, this will motivate us to show that to others too.

2. Don't strike back with unkind words

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Proverbs 18:21

Basically this verse is saying that there are consequences for the words that we say. Words can be used for love (life) and it can be used for hate (death). That's a pretty black and white statement. Either our words are loving and honoring to God, or they're dishonoring to Him and full of hate. When people do things to us that are irritating, offensive or hurtful, we must reject the temptation to retort or rudely strike back. THIS INCLUDES SARCASM. :) Our response to unfair or annoying situations will make or break our testimonies. Our old nature can be so short fused and short tempered. Thank God that He isn't short tempered with me! To be longsuffering, you must be someone who can hold their tongue. 

3. Don't be easily angry

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to heart, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. James 1:19-20

People who are easily angered show a certain kind of weakness, and Proverbs 16:32 reminds us that we are strong when we can rule our spirit. When we are easily angry at our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are doing harm to the gospel of Christ. Instead of promoting the cause of Christ, we are turning people away. God doesn't get easily angry with us when we do things that are wrong - as we saw before, He is longsuffering and plenteous in mercy. Mercy is not giving someone what they do deserve. Maybe someone really wronged you or irritated you, maybe you have a justified reason to be angry with someone. We should be following God's example by not being easily angered. We need to know how to govern and refrain our temper and resist the temptation to show our irritation or frustration. I know this can be SO HARD, especially when someone has wronged us in some huge way. Our fleshly nature has a temper that can so easily get out of control, but it's our job to be slow to wrath.

4. Be kind to others despite what they've done to you

Now I exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, BE PATIENT TOWARD ALL MEN. 1 Thessalonians 5:14

As patient as God is with you is how patient you should be with other people. We need to be loving and kind to people despite the ways they may have wronged us. If God held grudges towards my sin...I'm pretty sure He wouldn't have an ounce of love for me left. But He doesn't do that - He is patient. He forgives quickly and He forgets the things we've done wrong. Maybe there's someone out there who has made you really irritated, or rubs you the wrong way. Maybe there's a person you think poorly of or judge every time you see them. Maybe there's a person who has done something they don't even know offended you, or there might be a person who blatantly hurt you and knows it! It doesn't really matter what other people do to us, because no matter what, we've done worse to God. I think it's something to notice that God doesn't dislike or not love certain people. Sure, He was fed up with the hypocritical Pharisees in the New Testament and had no problem telling them that they were wrong, yet He still loved them and died for Him. Nobody could irritate God enough to make Him stop loving them or cease from showing compassion. In that same way, we need to be kind and patient toward other people, even the people we don't like.  Longsuffering is one of the special marks of Christian grace. When we're longsuffering to our brothers and sisters in Christ, we display a testimony of love and grace. We are able to show others by our actions that we understand that we're forgiven and loved, and therefore we want to show that same love toward others. 

     Honestly, we have no excuse for not being longsuffering. It's an important attribute of God and we need to be trying to conform to His image daily. I feel like in some ways it's become acceptable in the Christian culture to be easily frustrated, irritated or judgmental of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and this simply cannot continue. To reach the lost we must show them that we are people who try to love like God loves, and to do that we have to be longsuffering. This is something I know I will probably be working on till the day I die! Patience, kindness and compassion will get you much further in the Christian life than anger, criticism and condemnation ever will.

Stay excellent!

6 Characteristics of a Strong Woman of God

   
     Strength is defined as being able to withstand great force or pressure. This culture we live in today throws so many challenges at us! Society tells us how it thinks women should dress, think, act, speak, and live. But as Christians, it's our job to choose to be strong against the pressures of this world stand up for Christ. Being strong in the face of the challenges we face takes a very strong person! Here are some characteristics that a strong woman of God should have.

1. A strong woman of God will be confident in Christ

But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are more value than many sparrows. Luke 12:7

Can you believe that?! Every hair on our head is numbered. That's how intimately God knows us. To have a mindset of rest, we must realize how much God loves us and cherishes us.

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. Psalm 139:17-18

This verse gets me every time. He thinks more precious thoughts of me than there are GRAINS OF SAND. I can't imagine counting every grain of sand on one beach, let alone every grain in the entire world. We are loved by our Creator, and we need to be confident in that. A strong woman of God needs to be someone who doesn't talk badly about her looks, bash herself, call herself names, or talk down upon the way that God made her. A strong woman is someone who doesn't need to doubt that she is loved and she is cherished.

2. A strong woman of God will encourage others

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

Because we are loved by God, we will show this love to other people. Kind people are gentle, slow to wrath, not easily crabby or sour. Kind people go out of their way to make others happy. Being tenderhearted requires a person to be soft. A tenderhearted person will be sensitive to the thoughts, needs, struggles and pains of others. Forgiveness can be so hard when someone has wronged us, yet we must remember that no matter how much people wrong us, it will never compare to the amount of times we wrong God. A strong woman of God is someone who will encourage others, who will find ways to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving with everyone at all times.

3. A strong woman of God will serve

And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be the servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10:44-45 

Strong women of God will look for ways to minister and serve others. She will work lowly jobs that may go unnoticed. She is willing to do work that nobody else wants to do. Our strength should be used to help others around us. A strong woman of God realizes that everything we do either serves ones self, or God, and she will choose to serve Him.

4. A strong woman of God will support other women

A new commandment that I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have loved one another. John 13:34-35

This is the only time in the Bible where it says that if you do this, you WILL have a testimony. We are supposed to be people who love and support our brothers and sisters. Something that is so common among Christian circles is women bashing other women. We are judgmental, we are mean, we gossip, we whisper behind people's backs, we make fun, we even go so far as to hate. This is something that must stop in our culture. There is more unity in women of the world than there is in the church! What kind of example are we showing? Strong women of God will support and build up their sisters in Christ instead of forming cliques and being mean.

5. A strong woman of God will speak with truth and grace

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:15

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6

The things we say need to be edifying and loving. Every word that we say should be words that could come out of the mouth of Jesus himself. What if every word you said in a day was flashed across a billboard for the entire world to see? How careful would you be? A strong woman of God who speaks with both truth and grace will build up and be able to bring many people together for the glory of God.

6. A strong woman of God will be able to change the world

Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth life to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven. Matthew 5:13-16

The world is not impressed with a woman who claims to be a Christian yet acts like the world. The world needs strong women who can defend the clear gospel of grace and stand up for Biblical standards. The world needs to seee women who love others, love God, and are dedicated to His service. That's how we are going to reach the lost. A strong woman of God will be a light in a lost and dying world, she will defend the clear gospel no matter what, and she will always choose the Lord's side before anything the world has to offer.


     These types of women are few and rare, yet there are still so many amazing women who are out there right now serving the King to their fullest potential. May it be our challenge to be women who will stand up for what's right, who will be able withstand all pressure that the world has to offer, and who will be bold witnesses for Christ. There's nothing more powerful than a woman who is secure in her Creator, who never forgets that she was bought with a price, and chooses to live like it every day.

Stay excellent!

Derived from Lauren Demoss' post against feminism and for godly women at http://www.thefulltimegirl.com/2015/05/20/7-characteristics-strong-women-god/ 

Shallow Faith

And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.    Luke 5:1-8

     
     I love where Simon here basically says to Jesus, we have been fishing all night and have caught nothing, but I will go out further because you told me to. Simon doesn't question Jesus' authority - he recognizes that when God speaks it's our job to listen. To do anything else is foolishness. Simon relies on God's word. He knew that because God said it, he should obey it. He didn't doubt Jesus' words to him. God lets us know what He wants us to do through His word, through godly preaching, and through spiritually-minded authority figures. We need to be sensitive to the words of Jesus and we need to immediately obey His calling. 

     Fishing was the livelihoods of these men - they fished so they could eat and provide for their families. When Jesus asked them to go deeper, they were probably pretty discouraged. Simon tells Jesus that they have been toiling (defined as working extremely hard or with difficulty), and saw no return. Nevertheless, they were ready to obey immediately at His command. Simon didn't wait for assurance that everything was going to work out. He didn't wait for Jesus to promise him an abundance of fish or affirm that everything would be okay. He didn't wait for assurance before He launched out into the deep - he went head first with faith that God had everything under control.

     When we refuse to go out deeper, we are showing that we have shallow faith. We don't trust that God will take care of our needs and provide for us. We might think that the work we're doing now is pointless, so why push even more? Why keep reaching out to that person who shoots us down? Why keep being kind to ungrateful people? Why keep witnessing when it seems to never yield any fruit? Why continue serving when I never get recognized? Simon had been fishing all night and caught absolutely nothing, but that's because God needed him to be willing to have a deep faith, not one that lingered in the shallow waters.

     We cannot quit working where God has us just because we don't see results. We promise in ourselves certain successes and we think that if we don't achieve them, then all hope is lost. God has plans for us far different from the plans we've made for ourselves. We don't get to choose what ministries to give up on or what work to stop doing just because we're not getting what we think we deserve. We obey where we are called and leave the results up to God.

     There's no blueprint for life. Simon couldn't see what the end result of his obedience was going to be - he was asked to obey in the moment, and he chose to obey. This should be the desire of each one of us - to follow God moment by moment, day by day, no matter what. God knows our doubts and uncertainties, He recognizes the work we put in, even when it all feels hopeless. He can use our lives for good even when it seems like we will never catch any fish. 

Dare to trust God with everything you have. Dare to leave the safety of the shallow water. Dare to dive in to the deep waters. Dare to have a faith that goes beyond the shallow concerns of this world. God has never failed, and the good news is, He's not about to start now. 

     
Stay excellent!