Why God is Patient?

Have you ever wondered why God was so patient? I know you probably don’t think this when you’re hurting or discouraged or have been wronged, but what about when you have hurt, wronged and discouraged others and thought to yourself, “why does God still forgive me?” I wonder often why God is so patient with me. I know deep down inside that I couldn’t and wouldn’t be patient with somebody like me– so why would God, the creator of all the known and unknown universe be so patient? But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:16 ESV) The Apostle Paul writes to a young pastor in the first century why he thinks God is so patient– it is so that others can have hope in God for their salvation. Let’s think about it for a moment, however bad or horrible you think you are, which you probably are, I’m not going to deny it, Paul was probably worse. Paul, being a Pharisee, should know better, especially since he describes himself as a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” but he still goes out intentionally does wrong. He is an accomplice to murder, formed mob riots, persecuted the innocent and most like, dealt with people in a bad way. Yet God picks him off to do work and is patient through all of his apparent shortcomings. The reason for this– to show people that if Paul can be saved, so can anybody else. Let’s face it, God is not patient because he’s dead. God is patient because he believes people can be saved when they look at your shortcomings and mistakes. Next time you wonder why God is so patient, you should give thanks because people will have an opportunity to have hope and you can be reassured of your salvation– God is patient so that we would have hope to believe in eternal life with him. This Christmas season, let us remember that it was because of patience that God sent his Son Jesus to walk amongst impatient and unruly people like us. It is from this patience that we have any hope of salvation.