F is for Forbearance

This word really means Self-restraint.

I have a number of vines in my garden, which if they were left alone would grow over all the structures that they could find. When they flower they look amazingly beautiful but once the flowers have gone, they really are not much more than a pest particularly when I find the branches snaking their way under my house and out the other side. It is at times like this that I need to remember their beauty or I would get very determined and dig all of them out. They are very difficult to kill however as they have a tuber root system which needs to be removed properly to make sure that they don’t grow back.

I also need to remember that God is the gardener of my life. He sees the beauty that is in me and knows that by careful Self-restraint pruning He will be able to bring out the most glorious beauty in me and He has been doing this since Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden. His self-restraint is what stopped Him from destroying the whole world and starting all over again way back then and is what makes Him patiently wait until He decides to send Jesus back into the world to bring our history to an end and start the new one. This give us all time to become more and more like him if only we ask Him into our lives.

“And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and FORBEARANCE and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” ( Romans 2:3-4 )