Longsuffering is a fruit of the spirit and a choice we have to make.

Paul says in Colossians 3:8-17, speaking to the believers,

“⁸ But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

⁹ Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

¹⁰ And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

¹¹ Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

¹² Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

¹³ Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

¹⁴ And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

¹⁷ And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

This passage is so rich; the entire chapter is!

Do you notice that as believers we are to put off some things and put on others? Part of what we put on is long-suffering. It is a choice we make.

I admit, I awoke rather weary today. This passage is encouraging my soul. We put on long-suffering. We allow God’s peace to rule in our hearts. We choose thankfulness. How do we have the courage to do this? We let the Word of Christ dwell in us, encourage and edify others, and sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.

All we do is done in Jesus’ name with thankfulness, everything. This means that we look to Jesus even in our suffering and suffer in a way that glorifies God. Does this mean that we don’t feel the pain, hurt, and hard of the suffering? Does this mean that we always have to be strong? No, not at all. What it does mean is that we walk through all of it in a way that glorifies Him, in His strength!