Our womens online Bible study continues this week as we discuss our fourth week from Gideon by Priscilla Shirer. We expanded our understanding of God’s patience, unlike human patience.

(image: Unsplash)

The term “long-suffering” is used to describe this supernatural patience God has for His children. Using a keyword search in the King James Version I was surprised to see just three scripture verses with the term. I found Psalm 86:15 interesting, as the word long-suffering is translated to loving kindness (Amplified) and unfailing love (NLT).

• But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. KJV
• But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness and truth. Amplified
• But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. NLT
• But you, O God, are both tender and kind,not easily angered, immense in love, and you never, never quit. Message

Rarely do we see these adjectives applied to any human! Read the verses slowly and let them seep into your heart. God is

• loving-kindness
• unfailing love
• immense in love

Our lesson this week also explored spiritual gifts and Priscilla presented 4 Steps in Giving Our Gifts to God. Four pages in a Bible study workbook are not orchestrated to help you Discover your gifts, so take some time and explore this further. Your local church might have information on spiritual gifts, you can find the information online or even read a book about it. Don’t ignore your spiritual gifts. Seek wisdom and discernment.

You’ll find a Lifeway Spiritual Assessment Tool online when you click here.

Finally, we explored Gideon’s famous “fleece test.”  Hopefully you looked at times in your own life and discovered when and how God confirmed His message to you. It’s important to know the difference between seeking confirmation and sitting in unbelief, as Priscilla described so well this week in Bible study.

This week was filled with some great self-discovery questions, so I hope you took time to pray and complete the workbook answers. 

Assignment For the Next Week

• Read Week Five in the workbook
• Listen to Audio Session five or Video Session five at Lifeway.com (optional due to cost)
• Join a small group this week