Lesson 24: Praying for Patience

The story has often been told of the younger Christian who sought the counsel and help of an older brother, a minister of Christ. “Pray for me,” he asked, “that I may be given more patience.” Down on their knees they dropped and the minister pleaded with God, “O Lord, send this brother more tribulations and trials!”

“Hold,” exclaimed the other, “I did not ask you to pray that I might have tribulations but patience.”

“I understood you,” was the reply, “but we are told in the Word that ‘tribulation works patience.”

It is a lesson most of us are slow to learn. But note the steps as given in the passage above: tribulation, patience; experience, hope; and so the soul is unashamed, basking in the enjoyment of the divine love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit who dwells within.

 With this before us, it ought to be easy to understand what is meant when in Hebrews 6:10-12 we read of “the full assurance of hope.” “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: that you are not lazy, but followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”


As one walks with God, and learns to suffer and endure as seeing Him who is invisible, eternal things become more real than the things of time and sense, which are everything to the merely natural man. Thus there comes to the heart a trustful calm, a full assurance, based not alone upon the revealed Word but upon a personal knowledge of communion with God, which gives implicit confidence as to this present life and all that lies ahead.

One was once asked, “How do you know that Jesus lives -that He has actually been raised from the dead?”

“Why,” was the answer, “I have just come from a half-hour’s interview with Him. I know I cannot be mistaken.”

And this testimony might be multiplied by millions who, through all the Christian centuries, have borne witness to the reality of the personal companionship of Christ Jesus by the Spirit, drawing out the heart in love and devotion, and answering prayer in such a way as to make it impossible to doubt His tender care.

 Thought Question: 
Do you “rejoice” in tribulation?
What are the results of tribulation in our lives?