Patience is hope in disguise.

Patience is not joy. It is not kindness. It is not goodness. It is not self-control. It is not love. It is not peace. It is not faithfulness. It is not gentleness.

Patience is not joy. It is not kindness. It is not goodness. It is not self-control. It is not love. It is not peace. It is not faithfulness. It is not gentleness.

Patience is not joy. It is not kindness. It is not goodness. It is not self-control. It is not love. It is not peace. It is not faithfulness. It is not gentleness.

But at the core of patience is hope. Patience is hope in disguise. And where hope is lacking, patience cannot even exist. 

Closing one’s eyes is not patience. Shutting one’s ears is not patience. Taming one’s tongue is not patience. Doing any of those things is called ignorance, and not patience. 

But hope can cause us to close our eyes. And hope can cause us to shut our ears. And hope can cause us to tame our tongue.

Ignorance without hope is not life. Anything without hope is not life.

“And hope will never let us down. God has poured his love into our hearts. He did it through the Holy Spirit, whom he has given to us. At just the right time Christ died for ungodly people. He died for us when we had no power of our own. It is unusual for anyone to die for a godly person. Maybe someone would be willing to die for a good person. But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The blood of Christ has made us right with God. So we are even more sure that Jesus will save us from God’s anger. Once we were God’s enemies. But we have been brought back to him because his Son has died for us. Now that God has brought us back, we are even more secure. We know that we will be saved because Christ lives. And that is not all. We are full of joy in God because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of him, God has brought us back to himself.” (Romans‬ ‭5:5-11‬)