May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. ( Colossians 1:11 11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy; )

Strength is the right word. The apostle Paul prayed for the church at Colossae, that they would be “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience” ( Colossians 1:11 11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy; ). Patience is the evidence of an inner strength.

Impatient people are weak, and therefore dependent on external supports — like schedules that go just right and circumstances that support their fragile hearts. Their outbursts of oaths and threats and harsh criticisms of the culprits who crossed their plans do not sound weak. But that noise is all a camouflage of weakness. Patience demands tremendous inner strength.

For the Christian, this strength comes from God. That is why Paul is praying for the Colossians. He is asking God to empower them for the patient endurance that the Christian life requires. But when he says that the strength of patience is “according to [God’s] glorious might” he doesn’t just mean that it takes divine power to make a person patient. He means that faith in this glorious might is the channel through which the power for patience comes.

Patience is indeed a fruit of the Holy Spirit ( Galatians 5:22 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ), but the Holy Spirit empowers (with all his fruit) through “hearing with faith” ( Galatians 3:5 5 He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, `doeth he it' by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? ). Therefore Paul is praying that God would connect us with the “glorious might” that empowers patience. And that connection is faith.