The Patience of Jesus
Saturday, January 17, 2009 by Dee
I’m going to be honest. My bible reading has been very lax but I’m in the process of changing that. A couple of years ago Don and I decided we’d read the bible every night starting with Genesis 1:1. We did OK for a while but soon daily life took over. A few weeks ago we were talking and realized there was something missing in our lives. We have a relationship with Christ, we look to Him for answers and we go to Him when we’re happy, sad and need help but we still feel that there’s something missing. We didn’t have time set aside just for Him. I’ve written about this in earlier posts and said that we needed to adjust our schedule around Christ not try to fit Him into our schedule and here I am doing just the opposite of what I said. Well, that’s changing and we started reading our bibles after starting with the New Testament.
We’re still in the Matthew but I’m finding out that Jesus had more patience than I ever realized and the disciples, even after witnessing the miracles of Christ first hand had a hard time believing. In Matthew 14 Jesus fed the 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. After everyone ate the disciples picked up twelve baskets and there was food left over. Later in Matthew 15 they’re faced with the same situation. This time there are 4000 not counting women and children. Jesus told the disciples he did not want to send the people away hungry and the disciples had to ask where they were going to get enough food to feed the crowd as they only had 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. They’d already forgotten that Jesus has just fed a larger crowd with less. Again they fed the crowd and when they were satisfied there were seven basketfuls of food left over. Later in Matthew 16 they went across the lake but forgot to take bread with them and were talking about it among themselves. Jesus told them they were of little faith talking about having no bread. He asked them if they remembered the 5 loaves for 5,000 or the 7 loaves for 4,000. Could you imagine that scene with someone less patient than Jesus. The conversation would be more on the lines of “you idiots didn’t you learn anything the last 2 times you didn’t think we had enough food.”
Another example of His patience happened after Jesus had given his disciples authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness in Matthew 10. Later in Matthew 17 a man approached Jesus saying his son has seizures and suffers greatly. He told Jesus he took his son to the disciples but they could not heal him. Jesus had the boy brought to him and he rebuked the demon and it left the boy and he was healed. When the disciples asked why they couldn’t drive it out Jesus told them it’s because they had little faith. Someone less patient might have gotten angry and asked if why they didn’t believe anything he told them.
I find I’m more like the disciples than I’d like to admit and I’m glad my Savior has the patience He does with me because I can be forgetful and hard headed. I’ve witnessed miracles of Christ and even knowing what He can do I still question it. I want to have the faith of that mustard seed and be able to move mountains.
Matthew 17:20-21 He Replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
We’re still in the Matthew but I’m finding out that Jesus had more patience than I ever realized and the disciples, even after witnessing the miracles of Christ first hand had a hard time believing. In Matthew 14 Jesus fed the 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. After everyone ate the disciples picked up twelve baskets and there was food left over. Later in Matthew 15 they’re faced with the same situation. This time there are 4000 not counting women and children. Jesus told the disciples he did not want to send the people away hungry and the disciples had to ask where they were going to get enough food to feed the crowd as they only had 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. They’d already forgotten that Jesus has just fed a larger crowd with less. Again they fed the crowd and when they were satisfied there were seven basketfuls of food left over. Later in Matthew 16 they went across the lake but forgot to take bread with them and were talking about it among themselves. Jesus told them they were of little faith talking about having no bread. He asked them if they remembered the 5 loaves for 5,000 or the 7 loaves for 4,000. Could you imagine that scene with someone less patient than Jesus. The conversation would be more on the lines of “you idiots didn’t you learn anything the last 2 times you didn’t think we had enough food.”
Another example of His patience happened after Jesus had given his disciples authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness in Matthew 10. Later in Matthew 17 a man approached Jesus saying his son has seizures and suffers greatly. He told Jesus he took his son to the disciples but they could not heal him. Jesus had the boy brought to him and he rebuked the demon and it left the boy and he was healed. When the disciples asked why they couldn’t drive it out Jesus told them it’s because they had little faith. Someone less patient might have gotten angry and asked if why they didn’t believe anything he told them.
I find I’m more like the disciples than I’d like to admit and I’m glad my Savior has the patience He does with me because I can be forgetful and hard headed. I’ve witnessed miracles of Christ and even knowing what He can do I still question it. I want to have the faith of that mustard seed and be able to move mountains.
Matthew 17:20-21 He Replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
I loved reading this! I'd never realized before how the wonder of enough food to feed everyone occurred that many times.
The disciples sound a lot like little children. I wish as a parent I could be as patient as Jesus is with the disciples! He's a good example for me as a parent.
But it's very comforting to read he stays friendly and understanding even though time and time again they keep forgetting.
Thank you for posting this!
I had a dream once about Jesus being patient with people. In it he was able to be so patient because he understood that they didn't understand what he did... so he was patient. I try to be patient. Sometimes it works but not always.