More Like Jesus: Reflections on Patience and Compassion

I recently started reviewing the More Like Jesus series. I found it helpful to look up quotations from other sources, and I shared the first compilation of those with you in More Like Jesus—Reflections on Gratitude and Humility. As I continued reviewing the series, I carried on compiling quotations on topics covered in the series. I am sharing a couple more sets here, and will continue to do so from time to time.

Patience

“The fruit of patience in all its aspects—long-suffering, forbearance, endurance, and perseverance—is a fruit that is most intimately associated with our devotion to God. All character traits of godliness grow out of and have their foundation in our devotion to God, but the fruit of patience must grow out of that relationship in a particular way.”—Jerry Bridges

“Waiting is difficult but if you are going to walk with God you have to cultivate a heart of patience to wait upon Him. You must learn to wait.”—James K. Saah

“Patience is not simply the ability to wait—it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.”—Joyce Meyer

“You cannot make your life move faster than it’s moving. No matter how urgent your situation may seem to be, things are going to happen when they happen, not a minute sooner. Be patient with yourself. Be patient with others. Be patient with life. Patience always pays off.”—Iyanla Vanzant

“There are three indispensable requirements for a missionary: 1. Patience 2. Patience 3. Patience.”—Hudson Taylor

“God Himself is the supreme example of longsuffering. When we are tempted to be impatient with others, we should stop and think about the gracious longsuffering of God with us and our many wrongs against Him. In light of His patience toward us, who are we to think that we cannot patiently bear with the weaknesses and failures of others—or the wrongs they may have done to us?”—Alexander Strauch

“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.”—Helen Keller

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”—St. Augustine

“It is hard to wait and press and pray, and hear no voice, but stay till God answers.”—E. M. Bounds

“Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work.”—Peter Marshall

“Another reason [patience] is so hard to come by is that we often don’t like the way it comes. Romans 5:3 says, ‘Suffering produces endurance,’ and James 1:3 says, ‘The testing of your faith produces steadfastness.’ In both cases the product is patient endurance—the ability to remain under tremendous weight and pressure without succumbing. That which produces this is the difficult part: suffering, testing, trials. We would prefer an easier way for the fruit to be produced, but this is God’s way.”—Robert Carver

“Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”—Unknown

“Being a good teacher takes patience; being a good doctor also takes patience. In fact, if you want to excel in anything, master any skill, patience is an asset.”—Eknath Easwaran

“A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.”—Henri J. M. Nouwen

“The times we find ourselves having to wait on others may be the perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord.”—Joni Eareckson Tada

“When the Bible speaks of patience, … it speaks of it as a virtue that goes far beyond the mere ability to await some future gain. It involves more than the rest or peace of the soul that trusts in God’s perfect timing. The patience that is in view here focuses more on interpersonal relationships with other people. It is the patience of longsuffering and of forbearing in the midst of personal injury. This is the most difficult patience of all.”—R. C. Sproul

“Patience! Patience! You are always in a hurry, but God is not.”—C. H. Spurgeon

“Patience is the ability to suffer a long time under the mistreatment of others without growing resentful or bitter.”—Jerry Bridges

“Our Lord has many weak children in his family, many dull pupils in his school, many raw soldiers in his army, many lame sheep in his flock. Yet he bears with them all, and casts none away. Happy is that Christian who has learned to do likewise with his brethren.”—J. C. Ryle

“Patience is waiting for God to solve problems that we cannot.”—Unknown

“Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.”—Robert H. Schuller

“Think of the ills from which you are exempt, and it will aid you to bear patiently those which now you may suffer.”—Richard Cecil

“Spiritual growth is not like fast food. It takes time for its roots to grow, and that requires us to be receptive and patient.”—Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

“God has perfect timing; never early, never late. It takes a little patience and it takes a lot of faith but it’s worth it to wait.”—Unknown

“Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.”—Saadi

“Every day God patiently bears with us, and every day we are tempted to become impatient with our friends, neighbors, and loved ones. And our faults and failures before God are so much more serious than the petty actions of others that tend to irritate us! God calls us to graciously bear with the weaknesses of others, tolerating them and forgiving them even as He has forgiven us.”—Jerry Bridges

Compassion

“Compassion does not just happen. Pity does, but compassion is not pity. It’s not a feeling. Compassion is a viewpoint, a way of life, a perspective, a habit that becomes a discipline—and more than anything else, compassion is a choice we make that love is more important than comfort or convenience.”—Glennon Doyle Melton

“Compassion can be defined in many ways, but its essence is a basic kindness, with a deep awareness of the suffering of oneself and of other living things, coupled with the wish and effort to relieve it.”—Paul Gilbert

“Sympathy identifies with the problem, but compassion gets up, looks up, and says, ‘I need to do something about this.’”—Brian Houston

“You can cultivate mercy when you extend acts of compassion and kindness to yourself and to other people.”—Bree Miller

“Compassion is the tender opening of our hearts to pain and suffering.”—Ram Dass

“Simplicity in Christ is about love and compassion.”—Peter Nii Korley

“I believe the best way to live as a believer is to be poured out—we were made for pouring out Compassion, Gospel Truth, Love, Forgiveness, Generosity.”—Dino Rizzo

“Love involves compassion that leads to action.”—Tony Merida

“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”—Henri J. M. Nouwen

“Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering.”—Unknown

“Compassion, as opposed to pity, allows us to see ourselves in others and tugs at the heart until we find a way to prevent or relieve the other’s suffering.”—Linda Barbosa

“Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.”—Henry Ward Beecher

“I learned that sin was both personal and systemic, and everyone, no matter race and color, mattered equally to God. It was out of that commitment we began to reach out with compassion to the people in our new city.”—Tim Orr

“World over, the single most desirable trait in your partner, friend, parent, teacher, neighbor, colleague, or child is kindness. Kindness is the daily practice of compassion.”—Amit Sood

“In my view, the best of humanity is in our exercise of empathy and compassion. It’s when we challenge ourselves to walk in the shoes of someone whose pain or plight might seem so different than yours that it’s almost incomprehensible.”—Sarah McBride

“There was never one who came into the world with such loving compassion and who entered into all the needs of the people as did the Lord Jesus. And he declares to us, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my father’ (John 14:12). God wants us all to have an audacity of faith that dares to believe for all that is set forth in the word.”—Smith Wigglesworth

“Passionate prayer transforms us into compassionate people.”—Sammy Tippit

“God does not live in unreachable heights. He fervently waits for our prayers. God is a Judge whose compassionate heart truly reveals that He cares.”—Greta Swaan

“We should be thankful that God is a longsuffering and compassionate God who keeps on blessing us in spite of our ungratefulness.”—Unknown

“No matter who we are, no matter how successful, no matter what our situation, compassion is something we all need to receive and give.”—Catherine Pulsifer

“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.”—Albert Schweitzer

“There is no time in a person’s life when a rose of compassion is more appreciated than when they are in desert times of trials.”—Patricia Partney Dascher

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”—Dalai Lama

“As children of God, we need genuine compassion for others, even those with whom we may not necessarily be able to relate or with whom we don’t have shared experience.”—Shari Howerton

“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.”—Thomas Merton

“God’s dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion.”—Desmond Tutu