Through His faithfulness, God displayed Jesus as the place of sacrifice where mercy is found by means of His blood. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness in passing over sins that happened before, during the time of God’s patient tolerance. He also did this to demonstrate that He is righteous in the present time, and to treat the one who has faith in Jesus as righteous (Romans 3:25-26 CEB).
God is much bigger than your view of Him, and He will use all kinds of people—especially those on the margins—to broaden your understanding of that. Your task is to love and accept them where they are. Human beings will never be able to fully “map” out God, but it will take the experiences of each one to even get a small glimpse.
Tolerance is the ability to accept the differences of others. It enables you to show patience, compassion, and charity.
Tolerance can also be defined as “the power or capacity of an organism to tolerate unfavorable environmental conditions.” Imagine what that kind of power could do for you.
When you exercise tolerance, you are exercising your faith in the power of God’s goodness to soften hearts and His grace to overpower evil.
When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. —Mildred Lisette Norman
ACTION STEPS
| How would you rate your capacity to tolerate unfavorable conditions? What does this say about your own degree of personal empowerment? |
| How are you harnessing the power of tolerance to change the hearts and lives of those around you? In what small way might you show a little more tolerance? |
He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is hasty of spirit exposes and exalts his folly (Proverbs 14:29 AMP).