31 Attributes of God, Day 12: He Is Longsuffering

Welcome to Day 12 of our 31 Attributes of God series!  If you missed a day, you can find all of our posts right here.  Be sure to grab the accompanying free printable here (no email address required!) and join us for today's study!

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I am so excited about today's attribute:  God's longsuffering.  Longsuffering isn't a word a lot of people are familiar with anymore (in fact, as I'm typing this, my computer is telling me that I'm misspelling it because it's not in my computer's database).  Longsuffering can be translated as having patience throughout a lengthy trial, according to the online dictionary.

The longsuffering of the Lord has long intrigued me, probably because longsuffering is something that doesn't come naturally to me.  And I'm quite certain I'm not alone in that; longsuffering, or patience, is an area where many people struggle.  

I love how Psalm 86:15 describes God:  "But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth" (NKJV, emphasis added).  And this is one of His characteristics that we are to emulate. 

Paul shares in Galatians 5:22-23 that longsuffering is a fruit of the Spirit that should be seen in believers: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (NKJV, emphasis added).

Today's Assignment:  Are you a patient person?  If not, what goals do you need to set in order to grow in this area and become more Christlike?  One of my best recommendations (and one I need to heed myself!) for growing in patience is to study God's longsuffering.  When we grow in our understanding of God's patience, it can go a long way toward helping us cultivate more patience ourselves!