Dr. Ligon Duncan reflects on God’s patience and how it shapes our perspective on justice, grace, and spiritual growth.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
How do I grow in my devotional life?
Thank God that God is long suffering. Thank God that God is patient. Thank God that God is not short on the fuze. If he were, we’d be in trouble. But God is very, very patient. And let me say, sometimes that frustrates us. Sometimes it frustrates us that God is long suffering because we see many hard, wrong things in this world, and our hearts yearn for justice now. We want to see wrongs set right, right now. We want to see injustice put in order right now. It’s a fallen world. And in families, churches, institutions, countries, and societies, we see all manner of evil and wrong. And we get frustrated with God’s long suffering because God is patient. And when we are frustrated with it, we need to remember this. The wheels of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small.
God’s justice will come. It’s just not on our timetable. And so in that, we need to be patient with God’s patience because God is just and God is good, and God will set everything right. But he’ll do it on his timetable, not ours. The flip side of that is this: Thank God he’s patient with us. A lot of times, people ask me, How are you doing? And I’ll say, I’m better than I ought to be. And what I mean is, if I were getting what I deserve now, I would be cast out and banished. And so the patience of God is one of the great manifestations of his grace, love, and mercy. And we can thank God that he is patient with us. And by the way, that ought to engender patience with one another. You know, God’s not finished working on us. And so often I tell people all the time, you know, you can see little boys that drove their mothers and their schoolteachers crazy, and they grew up to be godly men. I’m thinking right now of a young woman who, when she was younger, she was just mean. And she has grown up to be such a godly woman. And I’m so encouraged every time I’m around her. I think the spiritual maturity, Lord, that you have worked in this young woman’s life. Thank you for making a woman like this. We have to be patient because God is patient. He’s slow to anger and he is generous in his loving kindness. And that is one of the greatest blessings that we could ever have. So whether you’re frustrated with God for being too patient. You need to remember. Thank God that God is patient. Because of that patience towards us. It is a means by which he allows us to grow and a means by which he gradually works on us, knocks off those rough edges and matures us in Christ. We have a long suffering patient God, and that’s something to thank God for.
