The Fruit of Longsuffering
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” - Galatians 5:22-24
Longsuffering is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that can only grow through seasons of what often is trial. Longsuffering is another word for patience, where we learn that through suffering our love may be perfected.
“Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.” - Hebrews 5:8
The point is not to glorify suffering, but to see ourselves as clay in the potter’s hands, as gold the goldsmith is refining through fire, and to recognize the costly work and fruit of suffering our Savior subjects us to in order to bear the fruit of longsuffering.
Olives must be pressed to produce oil, and the oil we receive through times of pressing contains the fragrance of His name (Song of Solomon 1:3).
Jesus knew longsuffering. He indeed suffered long on that Roman cross over 2000 years ago, submitting to the Father’s will and allowing God’s will to be worked through Himself in offering Himself up for our sins. He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane the night He was betrayed, sweating blood and submitting with a costliness that would only increase in His subsequent walk to the cross.
“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” - 1 John 3:16 NLT
Suffering often is the cost of loving someone. Suffering from laying down our own desires and ways to please the one we love in serving God, or suffering from the hurts and betrayals that the ones we love may inflict on us…
To know longsuffering is to know Jesus.
God doesn’t promise us an earthly life free from trials and persecution but a temporary one in a fallen world. The difference is, He has gone before us, and He promises to be with us no matter what (Hebrews 4:15, Romans 8:31-39, Matthew 28:20).
To be patient with waiting on God’s timeline, to rejoice in the trials that He allows us to go through or even handpicks for us, being the Creator and Lord of our hearts, all to know Him and glorify Him more. Even when things don’t make sense to us, we can choose to keep trusting Him, for His ways are higher than our ways. And when our free will feels bound by the lies of the enemy, when we don’t have the strength anymore to make that choice, when the desire starts fading or the vision of Him grows blurred, we can always cry out for His help. A broken and repentant heart pleases Him, a broken and contrite spirit He will not reject (Psalm 51). His grace is sufficient for us in our weakness, He promises this in His Word. So take heart, we have no need to fear in the presence of the LORD.
Tim Keller said, “the only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 a.m. for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.”
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” - Hebrews 4:16 NLT
“For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” - Hebrews 10:36-39 KJV
So practically, when we choose to bear with and love the people in our lives, we are choosing the way of God, the One who loved us by choosing to die for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).
“If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?” - 1 John 4:20 NLT
The way of our Lord invites us into a trusting relationship with Him wherein He teaches us love through bearing the fruit of longsuffering in us. Our longsuffering produces fruits to edify and build up other people. As usual, Jesus invites us to take our eyes off of ourselves and onto Him as we act as His hands and feet in this world, salt and light preserving the flavour of the gospel and illuminating the right and narrow path with His truth.
“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” - Psalm 119:130
Living out biblical femininity requires submitting to God, a walk in which He produces longsuffering in us. The way of the cross in biblical femininity is to crucify our passions and desires to be conformed after the ways of the world and the ways our sinful flesh craves for our femininity to be expressed. His way is better, truer, and more beautiful than we could ever think or imagine it to be, and all He requires is our trust and surrender in our love for Him.
To follow our journey of learning biblical femininity, find us on Instagram here.
To be in the know about our dresses, coming soon… join our waitlist here.