Fruit of the Spirit: Patience
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
“Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him; do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way, by the man who carries out evil plans.”
Psalms 37:7 HCSB
https://www.bible.com/72/psa.37.7.hcsb
Ooooo, this is a tough one. Have any of you ever prayed for patience? No? DON’T DO IT! This is the advice we received as new Christians. This may be funny, but trying to be patient in today’s world is anything but funny.
Yes, patience is a virtue, right?
Let’s face it, even the most patient person will lose it sometimes. I can be very patient with a crying baby in the middle of the night, but send me a disrespectful teenager in the middle of the day and my patience is near non existent.
Let’s talk technology? No, let’s don’t talk technology.
I feel like Patience is at an all time low these days. We live in an instant world, an instant generation. This last year as we were closed up in our homes, most of us survived by online shopping, online working and online school. How did that patience hold out when the internet went down? Slowed down to a crawl? How did that patience work for the working parent, while working a job and schooling their kids at the same time?
And though we did have to wait longer for some things, our instant generation became even more instant.
We shop from our phones and order just about anything we want or need from the comfort of our living room couch, kitchen chair, or our beds! Instead of taking a couple hours or maybe a couple of days to receive our goods, it maybe took a whole week. Our patience was tested by being with the family 24/7. Our patience is tested while we wait for businesses to re-open.
What happens when a person is impatient?
Anger, anxiety, mistakes. I don’t think anything good happens with impatience.
But what happens with patience? Peace, calm, being able to enjoy what we have.
See the common link here?
I love the verses in our Holy Bible that talk about not worrying about tomorrow.
What can we change with worrying?
Absolutely nothing!!
I can go on and on about physical patience. We all have a story or two to tell.
But what about spiritual patience?
I’ve almost given up on loved ones before. I hate to admit it, but I felt like my prayers weren’t going to be answered. I felt like there was no hope. Then, an unexpected event happened. I found out that another loved one accepted Christ as savior, one that I never expected. And now we are double the prayer support. As long as a person is breathing, they still have a chance to spend eternity with our Holy God. God never gives up, neither should we. We don’t know what the Holy Spirit is doing behind the scenes. We don’t know what’s going on in others minds, hearts, and spirits. We just don’t know. But we do know we serve a patient God, one that never gives up on us.
Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with Gods patience.
A patience beyond our understanding!
Real genuine Patience. Letting go, letting the Holy Spirit Fill Us. Let’s let go and let the Holy Spirit flow Geniuine Patience through us. Don’t try, don’t force, don’t pretend, just let.
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a good word cheers it up.”
Proverbs 12:25 HCSB
https://www.bible.com/72/pro.12.25.hcsb
“Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:34 HCSB