Love is Patient with People's Progress

January 10, 2024

God loves you. You don’t earn his love. He doesn’t wait until you’re

mature for him to start loving you. He doesn’t wait for you to clean up

or straighten up to think you’re good enough for his love.

This doesn’t mean you’re not a work in progress, but he loves you, as you are. He isn’t waiting to love the “finished product” version of you.

We should love other people the same way, being patient with people’s progress and loving them every step of the way.

1 Corinthians 13 tells us that, “Love is patient.”

I think a lot of Christian circles expect people to have an overnight

“behavior transformation” once they accept Jesus into their life. And,

while salvation and becoming spiritually alive through the power of the

Holy Spirit is immediate, God likes to work on people’s character through a transformation process.

The thing about processes is, they are almost never complete overnight.

The Apostle Paul is a great example in this: “I

am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue

his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus

returns” (Philippians 1:6 NLT).

He knew God was doing a good, long work in the lives of the people in

the Philippian church, and he was patient with their progress. 

If you’re

always expecting perfection in people before you can enjoy them, then

you’re never going to be happy, because nobody’s perfect—including you.

If you want to have happier and healthier relationships, then

celebrate how far people have come rather than judging them for how far

they still have to go. We’ve got to be patient with people’s progress.

I encourage

you to choose to love those around you with a love that is patient. Your

family. Your kids. Your spouse. Your co-workers. Pray that God would

work in their lives, and be patient with their progress, loving them

along the way.