Patience always seems to get a bad reputation. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard people talk about patience as if it were some kind of ugly word only to be uttered in the middle of some of life’s biggest crisis situations. The truth is much different, and I hope this week’s posts will help you to understand how much comfort and contentment patience can provide to those who embrace it…so get ready to embrace it!

When someone places their faith and trust in what Christ did by taking our sin, our punishment, and our place on the cross, they are simultaneously saved and given the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). While I know this is sometimes difficult to grasp, God gives us each attributes in our lives at the moment of salvation. These evidences of our salvation should become more apparent in our lives as we mature in Christ. This means as we learn more, study more, pray more, submit more, and read more about Christ, we should display that fruit more often. Yep, you got it. Patience is one of the fruit of the Spirit.

I like to describe patience as an virtue someone has who suffers long and overcomes their potential rising anger towards an annoying or difficult situation in their lives. In essence, patience can be described as strength and contentment in the midst of the anger and frustration of life’s specific events. Does that describe you? Do you find yourself becoming more and more angry and frustrated with things that seem to happen ONLY in your life? Let me put your mind at ease. Those things not only happen in your life, but they also happen in the lives of so many other people. You’re not alone. Does that help? Probably not, but it should encourage you that the struggle is not only real, but is being fought by so many people.

Let’s look at several aspects of patience for a few minutes.

God Demonstrates Patience

First, God demonstrates patience to all mankind because it reflects His love for us, which hopefully will lead to salvation in our lives (2 Peter 3:9). You see, it is not God’s desire that any of us should perish and spend eternity apart from Him. That is why He demonstrates so much patience and showers mercy (withholding judgment) on us even when we deserve His fury. I’m glad God is patient with me. I’m glad God is patient with us. He doesn’t have to be, but He is because He loves us.

 

Patience is a fruit God intends for us to demonstrate

Second, patience is a demonstration of our submission to the Holy Spirit in your life. No one likes to submit because it is so counter to our selfish bent in life. However, if we’re going to master this thing called patience, we first need to understand the importance of allowing the Holy Spirit to develop a spirit of humility and gentleness in our lives. This humility and gentleness help us as we allow godly patience to root. So many people get frustrated with the small things in life because they fail to rely on the Holy Spirit to control their irritations and frustrations. When people see that we have patience, it is a good thing. It is a great thing. Do people see patience in your life, or do they just see overreactions to events that God is using in your life to possibly show others that He can truly handle things for us when we submit to Him? Make a conscious effort to demonstrate patience in your life today.

 

Patience is a fruit that demonstrates supreme humility

Third, patience is an opportunity for others to walk all over us! Not really, but really. When we decide that we are actually going to live a life that tries to allow the Holy Spirit to control our patience it will mean that sometimes we have to take deep breaths or count to 100 before responding in situations. Again, this is counter to what we want to do. As people we oftentimes want to immediately react to situations that are “patience testers.” This is because anger begins to creep into our lives and we become so unsettled. Then……..you got it……..patience it thrown out of the window and we lose our minds at some of life’s most vulnerable times. Maybe it’s with our children. Maybe it’s with our parents. Maybe it’s with others who seem to aggravate us ALL THE TIME! Maybe it’s with an employer. Maybe it’s even with God. God addresses this several times in Scripture (Proverbs 14:29; Ecclesiastes 7:8-9). As we rest in God’s ability to develop patience in us, we also need to understand its impact on others around us.

 

Patience is a fruit God uses to share Christ’s story to the world

Fourth, patience can influence others to seek Christ. This may seem crazy at first, but when others see the way you handle life’s most outrageous and senseless times with smooth and “Holy Spirit-enabled and driven” patience, they wonder how they can deal with the same things the same way. It really is a way to open the door to share Christ’s story with the world.

Remember, God desires that we love Him and love others with a love that is quite unexplainable and foolishness to those who don’t have a relationship with Him. Our love for God and others should create a passion in us to live with amazing patience so that we will be able to share Christ’s story with others with great authority. Are you living in such a way that others might want to know how you handle to difficult things with such godly patience?

 

Patience is a fruit that requires daily maintenance and attention

How are you doing in this area of your life? Do crying children on airplane cause you to lose patience? How about those self-checkout kiosks? Maybe you’ve recently lost patience with your children. You may have even lost patience with your spouse. Do things beyond your control cause you to lose your mind? Remember, our lack of patience does not invalidate God’s power to provide patience in our lives, it is only a reflection of us not willing to completely surrender that area to Him. Surrender your patience to Him and He will begin to remove the root of anger in your life that eventually displays itself in more and more patience. Seems easy enough? All I can tell you is that it is a daily process. In fact, it is a minute-by-minute process. Allow the fruit of patience to fully display itself so that God receives the credit!