Fruits of the Spirit: Patience

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

(ESV)

Driving in rush hour in any major city gives one an illustration of patience and impatience.  Impatient drivers are those driving recklessly changing lanes frequently, often in an unsafe manner while patient drivers are those driving safely.  Unfortunately, these unsafe drivers cause more accidents, accidents that often involve a patient driver.  While patience as a driver does not prevent involvement in an accident, it does decrease the chance of an accident illustrating that the fruit of patience does have its reward.  Impatience also breeds rudeness, something I see when shopping as people focus on what they have come to do and act rudely towards anyone in their way.  We rarely hear the words please or thank you anymore and instead must dodge and get out of the way of impatient and often rude shoppers.  The root cause of this rudeness and impatience is selfishness lacking any concern for others. 

While technology enhances our lives making access to information, products, and communication with others, especially over great distances, more convenient, it is also breeding an increasingly impatient instant gratification society.  (1) (2)  Slick marketing appealing to the desire for instant gratification (3) has the unintended consequence of increasing credit card debt adding to impatience and rudeness as people must deal with the increased threat of financial collapse under a mountain of credit card debt.  (4)

Instant gratification can also negatively affect our walk with God as we expect immediate answers to our prayers.  The book of Job provides an example of a man enduring immense suffering.  In the book we see Job crying out to God (Job 30:20) but continuing to suffer.  The story of Job, however, does have a happy ending with God restoring all that he lost two-fold (Job 42:10-16).  Had Job been alive today and caught up in instant gratification, he would have grown impatient, following the advice of his wife to curse God and die (Job 2:9).  Instead Job patiently waits on God and receives restoration.  God delayed this restoration so that Job’s faith in God would grow stronger as a demonstration to his friends who thought their faith superior to that of Job. 

Daniel also experienced a delay in the answer to his prayer but for a different reason than the delay experienced by Job.   We find this account in Daniel 10:1-14.  Daniel was earnestly seeking the Lord but after 21 days receives no answer.  However, Daniel never ceased praying and after the 21 days had passed, he had a vision from what must have been an angel.  The angel assures Daniel God heard his prayer on the very first day, but delivery of the answer incurred resistance.  Patience is resting assured that God has heard our prayer and continuing to pray as there may be resistance in the delivery of the answer to our prayer. 

The ultimate period of waiting in scripture is the passage of time that occurred from the promise of a savior in Genesis 3:15 and the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-6).  The reason for the delay here was the need for God to prepare a nation and people from which His son would be born.  Sadly, however, the nation of Israel, the ones through whom Jesus was born did not recognize Him as their Messiah.  Fortunately, Israel did have some patient and religiously devout men like Simeon who recognized who Jesus was, even though he was only eight days old (Luke 2:22-38).  And the early Christians, mostly Jewish, who turned their world upside down (Acts 17:6).  Just like the Israelites prior to the birth of Jesus, we too wait patiently for the return of our Lord and bring peace and comfort to each other with that hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). 

A life devoted to God is not one for those expecting instant gratification but for the patient.  While the passage of 2000 years of time since the first coming of Christ seems like an eternity to us, to God it is like a couple of days (2 Peter 3:8).  Walking with God means learning to walk according to His time schedule which usually does not give instant gratification.  While this goes against the expectation of our modern culture conditioned to expect instant gratification, learning to slow down and spend time with God is a source of great strength and comfort in these chaotic times.  A chaotic impatient world must see God’s people demonstrating the fruit of patience.

The first step to bearing the fruit of patience is for us to have peace with God in our hearts.  The only part of walking with God that gives instant gratification is having our sins forgiven.  This is because our salvation from sin is not dependent upon our efforts but is something already completed through Jesus death burial and resurrection on the cross.  Since Jesus did this work on the Cross, God is patiently waiting for us to believe (John 3:16) and confess Jesus as Lord (Romans 10: 9-10).  Please pray with me now to experience peace with God,

Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans 3:23) and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans 6:23).  I ask you to forgive me of my sin and cleanse me as you promise in your Word (1 John 1:9).  I believe you died, was buried, and resurrected from the dead and now declare you Lord of my life.

You now have peace with God and can join other believers as we patiently wait for the glorious return of Jesus.  As you join us patiently waiting, find a church teaching the Bible and begin learning more about the God you will be spending eternity with.  I also encourage you to tell someone else about how to enjoy peace with God so they too can experience the fruit of patience in their lives. 

May God bless everyone reading this. 

1. Muther, Christopher. Instant gratification is making us perpetually impatient. www.bostonglobe.com. [Online] The Boston Globe, February 2, 2013. [Cited: October 16, 2017.] https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2013/02/01/the-growing-culture-impatience-where-instant-gratification-makes-crave-more-instant-gratification/q8tWDNGeJB2mm45fQxtTQP/story.html.

2. Taubenfeld, Emma. THE CULTURE OF IMPATIENCE AND INSTANT GRATIFICATION . https://studybreaks.com. [Online] Study Breaks, March 23, 2017. [Cited: October 16, 2017.] https://studybreaks.com/2017/03/23/instant-gratification/.

3. Patel, Neil. The Psychology of Instant Gratification and How It Will Revolutionize Your Marketing Approach. www.entrepreneur.com. [Online] Entrepreneur, June 24, 2014. [Cited: October 16, 2017.] https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235088#.

4. Pinyo. The Cost of Instant Gratification. www.moolanomy.com. [Online] Moolanomy, April 2, 2008. [Cited: October 16, 2017.] http://www.moolanomy.com/510/cost-of-instant-gratification/.