Meditation for May 2008

Those who have been following the monthly meditations for 2008 will know that we have been looking at the fruit of the Spirit as named by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This month we will be meditating on the fruit of patience.
In the past, I have thought of patience as a passive thing. If one is a patient with a sickness one passively gets treated in various ways such as intravenous fluids, surgery, or medications; tests, physio-therapy or psycho-analysis. In other words, things get done to one’s body or mind by professionals; these professionals actively perform some treatment while the patient passively receives the treatment.
I thought of the spiritual fruit of patience in much the same way. One meets up with many difficulties as one goes through life and one learns to passively accept them with patience. However, as I have been reading the scriptures on patience and meditating on the words I have read, I began to realize that there is more to patience than passive acceptance of life’s trials.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7.
Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Ephesians 6: 12, 13.
So then, we don’t just know about the evil forces; we don’t just allow the evil forces to perform their worst upon our spirits; we don’t just wait patiently for reprieve or passively accept the evil that is done to our souls so that we grow in patient acceptance. No, we fight against it; we put on God’s armour; we patiently endure every attack, no matter how often it comes upon us, by putting on God’s armour and fighting against the evil. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6: 14-17.
Here it is that we discover that the spiritual fruit of patience does not grow in passivity but in activity. We do not just lay back and allow the fruit to grow by itself in whatever way it can; we actively participate in its growth, defend it as it grows, protect it as it grows by fighting against the evil one in alliance with the Spirit. We do not passively endure whatever comes upon us but actively endure against whatever would destroy our spiritual fruit or plant at whatever stage of growth it is in.
The things that can prevent our spiritual fruit from coming to maturity may come from within us or from without. We must have patient endurance to withstand the evil forces that would destroy our spiritual growth; would attack our spiritual growth; uproot our spiritual growth; starve our spiritual growth; or choke our spiritual growth. Some of the things that can prevent our spiritual fruit of patience from coming to maturity are very subtle and can even masquerade as the spiritual plants and fruit themselves. They are like weeds in our natural gardens that take on the look and characteristics of the surrounding plants before becoming stronger and more aggressive than they are by putting down deep roots so that they finally choke out the good plants.
Patience, endurance, and standing firm against the evil forces need to take on an active stance with the strength of the Holy Spirit and the whole armour of God.

 © Judith Lawrence May 2008