The Patience of God from Night
Watches by John McDuff The God of Patience Romans chapter 15
verse 5 There is no more wondrous subject than this, the patience
of God. Think of the lapse of ages during
which that patience has lasted, six thousand years. Think of
the multitudes who have been the subjects of it, millions
on millions in successive climates and centuries. Think of the sins
which have, all that time, been trying and wearying that patience,
their number, their heinousness, their aggravation. The world's history is a consecutive
history of iniquity, a lengthened provocation of the Almighty's
forbearance. The Church, like a feeble ark,
tossed on a mighty ocean of unbelief, and yet the world, with its cumberers,
still spared. The cry of its sinful millions
at this moment enters the ears of the God of Sabbath, and yet
for all this, His hand of mercy is stretched out still. And who is this God of Patience?
It is the Almighty Being who could strike these millions down
in a moment, who could, by a breath, annihilate the world. No, who
would require no positive or visible putting forth of His
omnipotence to effect this, but simply to withdraw His sustaining
arm. Surely of all the examples of
the Almighty's power, there is none more wondrous or amazing
than God's power over Himself. He is slow to anger. Judgment
is His strange work. He shows mercy unto thousands
of generations. God bears for 1500 years from
Moses to Jesus with Israel's unbelief. And yet, as a writer
remarks, he speaks of it as but a day. All day long have I stretched
out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. What is
the explanation of all this tenderness? My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
says the Lord. Believer, how great has been
God's patience towards you. In your unconverted state, when
a wanderer from his fold, with what unwearied love he went after
you, notwithstanding all your waywardness, never seizing the
pursuit until he found you. Think of your fainting and weariness
since being converted, your ever-changing frames and feelings, the ebbings
and the flowings in the tide of your love. And yet, instead
of surrendering you to your own perverse will, His language concerning
you is, how can I give you up? For a lifetime your Savior God
has been standing knocking at your door and his attitude is
still the same. Behold, I stand, but fainter
than the pole's star's ray. before the noontide blaze of
day, in all of love that man can know, all that an angel's
breast can glow, compared, O Lord of hosts, with Thine, unwearied,
fathomless, divine. How should the patience of Jesus
lead me to be submissive under trial? When He has so long borne
with me, shall I not bear with Him? When I think of His patience
under a far heavier cross, can I murmur when He murmured not?
No. I will check every repining thought,
and looking up in confiding affection to the God of all patience, I
will lie down and sleep in peace. For You alone, O Lord, make me
dwell in safety. Psalm 4 verse 8