In this inspiring episode, Rick Hughes invites listeners on a journey to discover the virtues of patience and forbearance as cornerstones of spiritual maturity. Drawing from biblical teachings, this episode sheds light on the importance of patience with both people and circumstances, and how this divine quality can transform personal and spiritual relationships. Don’t miss Rick’s practical advice on maintaining a relaxed mental attitude and waiting on God’s perfect timing in life’s trials.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. And for the next few minutes, I’d like to give you a cordial invitation to stay tuned. Stick with me. About 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education. And we always do that without any solicitation. That means we’re not going to be asking you for any money. We’re not going to ask you to join up, fess it up, give it up. We’re just going to ask you to listen up. Because my job is to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. And if you want to orient and adjust to the plan, that’s up to you. You have that freedom to choose to do so. But I will get it right. I’ll be accurate. I’ll make sure you understand what the Bible has to say in regards to these things we’ll study today. The flotline, the forward line of troops, F-L-O-T, is a military metaphor. And it’s all about you building up inside your soul an invisible defensive barrier called a flotline. made up of 10 unique problem-solving devices. When you learn these biblical problem-solving devices, then you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside sources of stress. Because we know adversity is obviously inevitable, but stress is actually preventable. It’s optional. You don’t have to have stress. That’s what’s so unique about the Christian life. It’s a unique way to live with no worry, no fear, no guilt, no bitterness. It’s a different way to live. And so I try to remind you of these biblical truths and introduce you to this new way of studying God’s Word, digging in and learning God’s Word without any type of manipulation. So it starts, first of all, with the great news, the wonderful news that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, has redeemed all of us out of the slave market of sin. That means he paid the price for our sin, paid the penalty for our sin. He who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God through him is what the Bible says. So when we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, we in effect accept the great grace offering he made for us on our behalf, the free gift of eternal life, compliments of the grace of God. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is a gift from God and not of works, lest any man would brag about it. So the death and the burial of Jesus Christ and his ultimate resurrection demonstrated to us that he was, in fact, indeed the Son of God, and that what he says to you is true. You can believe it. You can trust it. He’s not a lunatic. He’s not a liar. He is the Son of God. And Titus 3, 5 says, not by works of righteousness, which we’ve done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. By the washing of regeneration, that’s making us into new people, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, that’s the Holy Spirit coming to live inside of you. which he shed on us abundantly through Christ our Lord, and that being justified by means of his grace, not works, grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. There it is. It’s a wonderful free gift from God. Today we want to take a look at something that’s very critical for Christians, critical for us to understand. It’s probably, if there are two doctrines that most Christians never really hear taught on, One of them is arrogance, sins of arrogance, and how arrogance goes from self-justification to self-deception to self-absorption to eventually self-destruction. Very few pastors ever really preach on arrogance. They may preach on sin, but they might not preach on the sin of arrogance. The other one that you very rarely hear any pastor, any evangelist, anybody write a book about is called patience. Patience in the Bible is a wonderful virtue. It’s a great virtue, and I’d like to talk to you about that today and to challenge you in regards to your lack of patience. In Psalm 37, seven, we have these words written by David. Rest in the Lord, rest. That’s a word that stands for having a relaxed mental attitude. This is one of the great things about the Christian life, having an RMA, a relaxed mental attitude. If you have a relaxed mental attitude, that means you’re thinking divine viewpoint. You’re orienting to the grace of God. So rest, and then we have the prepositional phrase, in the Lord. Rest in the Lord, and then wait patiently for him. Rest and wait, two great, fantastic verbs there. Wait patiently, and that’s the faith rest drill. That’s a promise of God. That’s one of our promises of the 10 problem-solving devices. Problem-solving device number three is the faith rest drill. By the way, we have a book that lists all 10 of these problem-solving devices for you. It’s called Christian Problem Solving. It’s absolutely free. All you got to do is write and say, send me the book and we’ll get it right out to you. Never send you, ask you for any money and never write you again unless you ask for something. So rest and wait. Two key words for him, for you. Have a relaxed mental attitude. wait in him on faith and then I read it again rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his way because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass and so David saying don’t worry about the evil man don’t worry about what he does let the Lord handle it just rest and wait on God to handle the difficulties and the adversities that you face in your life If I read it in a different translation, the New Living Translation, it says this, be still, that means don’t run ahead of God, be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently, there’s the word again, for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. The Old Testament Hebrew word for patience is hul, spelled C-H-U-W-L, hul. And by definition, the word patience means this. It’s the capacity or the habit of enduring evil, enduring adversity, enduring pain with some sort of fortitude. It’s you having forbearance under stress, under provocation, or under indignity. And to deal with this, the Bible uses three different words in the Greek New Testament. Remember, the New Testament was written in Greek. The Old Testament was written in Aramaic and Hebrew. But the three different words for patience in the New Testament are very interesting. And that’s what I’d like to run by you right now. Because anytime you see the word patience in the Bible, it’s going to be one of these three words in the New Testament. One of the three. So if you just go to the index of your Bible and look up patience and see all the verses that have patience in it, you’ll see if you know the Greek language that it’s one of these three words. And each one means something different. We only translate it into one word in the English, patience. But it means something different in the Greek. So let’s take a look at it. The first word for patience, I’ll go to Hebrews 12, one. Because seeing that we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight that doth beset us and run the race that is easily in front of us run the race with patience in other words that run the race or the circumstances that we face we have to be able to handle that so again listen to it again wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race or the circumstances we face that is set before us. Run with patience. There it is again. The word patience in this verse is a Greek word pronounced hupomeno. Hupo Mino. And actually, Hupo Mone, but it’s from the Greek word Mino. Hupo Mone, I’ll spell it for you. H-U-P-O, Hupo Mone, M-O-N-E. It’s a compound verb and it means hupo is under and meno is to abide. So it’s hupo meno or hupo mone, to abide under. And this has to do with, listen, the circumstances you face in your life. You must have patience with circumstances. You must be steadfast, you must be consistent, you must be endurance, you must have that. And that’s the key to living the Christian life. You can’t get knocked off balance. You can’t get knocked out of shape. You got to be able to be stable, firm, and secure in your Christian life. Hupomone, Hebrews 12.1. Then we go another verse, another word that we see is macrothumia. Macrothumia. And that’s a compound word from macros, that is the word long, and thumos, which is temper. And so this word is translated long-suffering. Long-suffering. It means to have longanimity or to be patient with people. So hupomone is patience under circumstances, and macrothumia is to be patient with people. I was looking this word up, studying this word, and found that a couple of famous biblical scholars in the 1800s said this about it. They stated, this is Abbott and Smith and Trench, that the hupomone word expresses patience with regard to adverse circumstances. And macrothumia expresses regards to patients with antagonistic people. So it’s the same thing I just told you. One’s patient with people, macrothumia. One’s patient with circumstances, hupomone. And then you got to ask the question was how does my patients grow? Because there’s one more word for patients too. We’ll get to that here in just a second. But how does your patience grow? Well, in trials, the Bible tells us in Luke 21, 15 through 19, where you have patience over your emotions in testing. You don’t let your emotions take control of you. You have patience over your emotions. Your patience grows in undeserved suffering. 1 Peter 2, 20, where you respond, not react to the pressure. See, anytime something happens, a trial or some undeserved suffering, you can react with anger, frustration, bitterness, or you can respond with wait and be patient, rest and wait. Rest, relax mental attitude, wait patiently, faith rest drill. So if you’re going to respond, you’re going to have an RMA and use a faith rest drill. If you don’t, then you’re gonna get into panic palace and you’re gonna try to handle it yourself. If God puts you under testing, it’s designed to teach you patience in circumstances. Another way your patience is developed in the spiritual life is James 1.4. It’s developed to reach spiritual maturity. You can’t be a spiritually mature believer until you become patient with people and with circumstances. in second thessalonians 3 5 the lord direct your hearts into the love of god and into patience of christ patience of christ is divine viewpoint thinking it’s having the same mind that he had if there was anybody that was ever patient it’s the lord jesus christ dealing with the disciples we know them as the apostles we know them as amazing men of god but To tell you the truth, he probably knew them as a bunch of knuckleheads. I mean, you got a group of fishermen, a couple of tax collectors, you know, you got whatever else you had in the middle of all that mix, and here they were. And they were hard-headed. They didn’t get along with each other. They competed for attention. They wanted the best seat in the… kingdom when it came. And the Lord was very patient with these men, developing them, bringing them along, teaching them the divine way of thinking to have the same mind that he had. So Paul eventually wrote back to Timothy and wrote these words in Colossians 1, 9 through 11. For this reason, We also, since the day we heard it, don’t cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Now, he’s actually writing this letter to the church at Colossae. And listen to this last verse 11 of Colossians 1.11. Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, this is the Holy Spirit, combined with the word of God in your soul, for all patience and long-suffering with joy. So, Paul uses both words here, hupomone and macrothymia. Strengthened with all might, that’s the Holy Spirit and God’s word resident in your soul, according to his glorious power, for all, hupomone and macrothumia, patience with people, patience with circumstances, but the last two words, with joy. Not complaining, not being bitter, not griping, with joy. The next word we want to look at in the Bible for patience is the word anoke, A-N-O-C-H-E, anoke. Anoke is translated forbearance. It means to hold back. It’s a delay of punishment. It’s a quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation, which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish. It’s the opposite of anger, and it’s associated with mercy. Listen as I describe God having forbearance. Anoke, 1 Peter 3.20, God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which eight souls were saved by water. God waited, God had forbearance, anoke. Romans 2.4, or despiseth thou the riches of his goodness and the forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance, Paul wrote. Forbearance, anoke, longsuffering, macrophamia, this is God being patient with people. Being patient with people, patient with me, patient with you, not getting frustrated when we fail, not getting frustrated when we sin, not giving up on us, not throwing us under the bus, not turning his back on us, but patiently loving us. Do you despise the riches of his goodness and his forbearance and his long-suffering, his patiently waiting on us, dealing with all us weirdos? Don’t we know the goodness of God leads to repentance, the verse says? Here’s the principle. Patience avoids emotional sins and frustrations in your life. If you have divine patience, you won’t be letting your emotions run your life, control your life, and you won’t be getting frustrated. Two, patience maintains confidence in God’s perfect timing. Not your timing, his timing, God’s perfect timing. See, God has a right time and a right place. You may make it up, but it might not be his time. It’s true in prayer. You can ask what you want, but it might not be the right time that God want to give it to you. Number three, your faith will be tested, and through it, your patience will increase. This is what God does. He tests us. He teaches us. This is how we grow, and we have to patiently wait on the answer. We have to patiently seek his will. And four, patience is divine good production that is rewardable at the judgment seat of Christ. This will surprise you, but patience is divine good, and it can be gold, silver, or precious stone. It is actually part of the filling of the Holy Spirit, patience is. So if you demonstrate patience in your life, it’s rewardable in eternity. God will reward you for that under 1 Corinthians 3, verses 11 through 16. Wood, hay, and stubble are gold, silver, and precious stones. That patience that you demonstrated with your wife or with your husband, with your children, with your church friends, that’s rewardable. You didn’t go off the handle. You didn’t get mad. You didn’t fly into a rage. You didn’t yell at them and scream at them. You waited patiently for them to get it straight and understand it. So Paul writes in Titus 2 that Timothy is to teach sound doctrine so the older men in the congregation will learn patience among other important doctrines. I’ll read it to you. Titus 2, 1 and 2. But as for you, dear Timothy, in other words, speak the things that are proper for solid, sound doctrine. Not weird stuff. Solid, sound doctrine. That’s one of the things happening in our country today. Men and women have moved away from solid, sound doctrine. And we’ve gone for the weird stuff. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, so that, or in order that, the older men be sober. Now, that’s a metaphor for being in good health. That means their spiritual life is free from error. It’s not necessarily talking about not be drunk. that they’d be sober, which means they’d be under self-control, that they’d be reverent or dignified, and they’d be temperate in control of their senses, curbing their desires, curbing their impulses. So that’s the first three things. Teach sound doctrine so the older men who have a tendency to lose their self-control won’t lose it. who have a tendency not to act very dignified will act dignified and have a tendency to not curb their desires will in fact curb their desires. The word of God gives you the power to obey these things, to control yourself, to act dignified and curb your desires. So then he goes on to say, and that they may be sound in faith, in love, and in patience. Faith and love, faith and sound in faith, sound in love, sound in patience. So this is what Timothy is supposed to teach God, sound, solid words, so that the older men in the congregation, and you know if you go to a church where the older men are, this could be them. Sound words. who gay I know is the Greek word sound who gay I know that means healthy spiritually not given to error that means not letting their emotions take over and try to tell you that a great Christian is somebody that cries and comes to the altar every night that’s not necessarily true great Christians may cry and come to the altar but that doesn’t make you a great Christian that they would be sound in faith, doctrine they’ve learned, doctrine they’ve applied. It doesn’t do you any good to learn it if you don’t apply it. You have to learn and apply if you’re going to glorify. And that’s the old saying, LAG, L-A-G, learn it, apply it, and glorify God. So they need to be sound in faith, sound in love, understanding what it means to abide in his love, where Jesus said, if you abide in my love and my word abides in you and you abide in me, I mean, this is the most amazing study. If you don’t understand personal and impersonal love as part of the problem-solving devices, it’s impossible for you to live effectively the Christian life while you’re in the devil’s world. you must understand personal and impersonal love. And these things are in the book in a brief way, not a very in-depth way. But personal love is your motivational virtue why you obey God. If you love me, you will obey me, and my mandates are not hard, 1 John 5, 3. Impersonal love is you reciprocating the love of God to those that you’re around And you love them based on who you are, not based on who they are. It’s the same way God loved you. He loved you based on his character, not yours. If you think God loved you because you’re a wonderful person, you’re out in left field. You were a sinner, lost, on your way to hell. But he loved you so much that he sent his son to die for you, to take your place, to be punished in your steed. And by means of his death and the burial and eventually his resurrection, where he walked out of there alive, he demonstrated. that he indeed paid the price. Understanding God’s love is critical for any Christian because it’s not an emotional thing. It’s a spiritual thing you must know. If you don’t understand it, let me know. Let me get you some material on it. Let me tell you where you can go to study it because there are some great pastors that have taught a lot on this, and it will change your life once you understand personal and impersonal love. So sound in faith, sound in love, sound in patience. Hupomone, patience with circumstances. That’s the patience the older men need. They don’t like change. They don’t want change. They don’t like this new preacher. They don’t like that. They don’t like the way the young people came in there and want to change the church or do this, do that. You know, if there’s one thing older people are sometimes is not very patient because they know they don’t have a lot of time left and they want to get it done, get it done now. Not every old person is willing to go out and sit under the juniper tree and fish for a brim, you know. They want to get it going. So humility, objectivity, and patience all combine to bring into focus the faith rest drill in your life. Humility, you have enough humility to listen to a qualified pastor teach you the word of God. Objectivity, you’re not subjective. You don’t take everything personal. And then patiently you grow day after day, moment by moment, week after week, until you begin to replicate the life of Christ. Patience is a divine characteristics of a merciful savior and it should be your characteristic too. Paul taught this in Colossians 1.10 through 12. Some of the concepts of the mission God assigned to us is to walk worthy of our Lord, to be fully pleasing to him, to be fruitful, to increase in knowledge, to be strengthened with his might of all of his glory, for all patience and longsuffering with joy. There it is again, patience with people, patience with circumstances, and to have joy in the spite of all of this. So the Holy Spirit is the only one that can produce this sort of patience in the form of relaxed mental attitude, which is where the joy comes from. Arrogant people don’t have any patience. Arrogant people don’t have any joy. Arrogant people don’t have any impersonal love. Arrogant people are going to be losers in time. Not in eternity. They have eternal life. They will be there. But in time, they’re losing out on all their rewards. They’re losing out on any opportunity to glorify God. They’re losing out on any true, wonderful, genuine friendships in Christ because they’re not patient with people or with circumstances. God is long-suffering, not wanting any to perish. That’s the anoke word I showed you. So remember this. When you read the Bible, you will see the word patience, and it will be one of those three words, macrothumia, hupomone, or anoke. All right? I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something today, and I hope you’ll come back next week. Same time, same place. Until then, I’m your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
