“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13)
In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul outlined the fruit of the Spirit as such: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Let’s take forbearance or patience. That is the one thing we won’t be needing in heaven. Why? Sin isn’t found anywhere in heaven. God won’t be patient with us in heaven because He won’t have to.
For as long as we’re on earth, as we’re celebrating all that the Spirit produces in us, we have to acknowledge that forbearance is where the rubber of our life meets the various roads of life in general. On this earth, without that rubber, that willingness to forgive and be patient with others and ourselves, we would be destroying each other as a form of retaliation toward one another.
Forbearance doesn’t mean that you’re feeling joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control, or faithfulness. No. Forbearance means that you’re in pain. And despite that, you’re holding on. Forbearance is that personality that we all wish we never had to apply.
Forbearance is the wrapper of love because love endures all. So, love never fails. Instead, love protects.
None of us wants to endure evil.
“Why not be treated wrongly? Why not be cheated?” (1 Corinthians 6:7)
I wish I never needed forbearance. Yet, in this world, forbearance does all the dirty works. And whether we ask for it or not, they always come knocking at our door when we least expect them because we never hope to have to endure anything in this life.
Here’s how we know that forbearance, thanks to God, won’t be a necessity in heaven:
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)
Jesus is the well of the living water, the Holy Spirit. 