Strengthen with patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.

Colossians
{1:1} Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,
{1:2} To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
{1:3} We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
{1:4} Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
{1:5} For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
{1:6} Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew
the grace of God in truth:
{1:7} As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;
{1:8} Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
{1:9} For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding
{1:10} That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

***


{1:11} Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

Amazing isn't it? Strengthened with all might- according to HIS glorious power-- not physically. We think strengethening with all our might as being physically powerful. Using all our might to commit tasks, to endure and yet here Paul is praying for those saints, those believers at Colosse, wanting them to be strengthened with all might according to Jesus' glorious power unto ALL patiences and longsuffering with joyfulness.

Let me tell you having such a strength is very rare. Very rare.

We don't have patience, we are filled with impatience, filled to the brim with it. Our lives are focused on here now, getting what we want as soon as we can with the least delay. We have a desire and we want it filled instantly. Fast food, fast check outs, fast commutes, fast service, fast work days, fast falling in love, fast waits for every situation the faster the better. When it's time to relax we cut back on that *fast desire* a little bit wanting our leisure time to be prolonged- however during that leisure time we want our comforts quickly. We want our pizza delivery in 30 minutes or less, we want commercials on our television to speed through the less the better, we want any home chores needed to be done on our days off to go very quickly. Interrupted by another we want the interruption to quickly be over- precious time is a wasting.

Patience.

Strengthened with all might - unto all patience (according to Jesus' power).

Strengthened not just a little bit but with ALL might! Unto patience.

Why would the followers of Jesus need to have such patience? Maybe because when people don't see end results instantly they lose sight of their goal, they grow bored, they grow disillusioned, they stray. Just because the life of those living back 2000 years was totally different than our lives today doesn't mean they were any less impatient for their lives to be freed from the burdens they were under and Christ to return to save them. Today and for the last 2000 years Christians have been looking for the promised return of Christ. Some might call Christians crazy disillusioned fools to hold fast to this hope for so long! 2000 years! Fools? Well, some might say definitely, that sooner or later people need to give up hope, if He's not returned after 2000 years what would make people believe He'll ever return?

Faith.

Christians have faith and no wonder Paul used those words- Strengthened with all might....ALL MIGHT...according to HIS glorious power until ALL PATIENCE!

Such patience is needed for Christians, all Christians. If we are strong in patience then we're not going to be like those who say--

'Matthew
{24:42} Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
{24:43} But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
{24:44} Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
{24:45} Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
{24:46} Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
{24:47} Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
{24:48} But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
{24:49} And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
{24:50} The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for [him,] and in an hour that he is not aware of
{24:51} And shall cut him asunder, and appoint [him] his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Evil servants say in their heart- the Lord delays his coming and as a result no longer walks upright.

Patience. We have to have patience. Christ will return and Christ will strengthen His saints with all might in that patience and not only in patience but in -- {1:11} Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness

Longsuffering with joyfulness!

Did you read that?! Read it again.

Longsuffering with joyfulness!

We don't suffer with joyfulness, why it's absurd! Only those amazingly heroic people perhaps with some terminal illness somehow manage to suffer and be happy. These people write uplifting books for others suffering. These people are pointed out and put on the news specials and documentary, people exclaim and marvel over the ability of the few to suffer with joyfulness. On a tv show called HOUSE- about a very caustic brilliant doctor- there was a show about his disbelief that a patient could be happy all the time regardless of circumstance and you know what, he was proven right- the person in question had a medical condition that made him happy all the time. I don't recall the details but suffering with joyfulness is an oddity really.

Yes, people suffer all the time, all the time. Each person has their own unique suffering. What might be painful to you either emotionally or physically, might not be so to me, but that doesn't make your pain any less and vice versa.

We suffer in many ways and Jesus is there to strengthen us.

Paul is praying that Jesus will strengthen us with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and LONGSUFFERING WITH JOYFULNESS.

Strengthen with patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.

Truly it's amazing when we can suffer with joy.

We will suffer, we will be tempted towards impatience. There is no wonder that Paul would pray such a prayer.

May Paul's prayer for the saints at Colosse be our prayer today.

Colossians {1:11} Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.

We need this! We need strength now more than ever 2000 years later. We need strong patience and we need the ability to suffer with joyfulness and not give in to our suffering which is so easy to do. We suffer and we want sympathy, we suffer and we want to cry and wail. We suffer and want others to suffer with us, or at least give us a lot of sympathy, suffering with a smile isn't something we're prone to doing. We need the Strength of Christ in all might to live lives acceptable unto him now and always.

By His grace, by His mercy.

Amen.