Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, “The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.” You may have heard about the fruit of the Spirit and wondered what it is and how it relates our Christian faith.
In this series, each fruit will be explored and related to our everyday lives. Just like physical fruit need time to grow, the fruit of the Spirit will not ripen in our lives overnight. As we mature in our faith, all the characteristics of our spiritual fruits will grow as well.
The fourth fruit of the Spirit is patience. The word ‘patience’ is mentioned in Scripture nearly 70 times. But, really, who has time for patience? All of us have been told at some point in our lives to just be patient. In our age of instant gratification, nobody enjoys patiently waiting.
For most people, patience can be difficult in certain circumstances. Whether it’s waiting in a doctor’s office past your appointment time, sitting in traffic or trying to get the kids to do their chores, patience is sometimes hard to come by.
During these recent times, our days can be long, hard and incredibly stressful. When we’re exhausted or worried, finding patience is probably the last thing on our minds, but it should really be the first. We are told in Psalm 37:7, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”
How do we develop patience? How can we cultivate patience in relationships with our loved ones? Patience is waiting with grace and it’s what enables us to live in this demanding world and still have love, joy and peace, and all the other fruits of the Spirit. But, patience is much easier said than done, right? Waiting with patience is difficult, and God knows this. The good news is that you don’t have to wait alone.
Romans 8:26 says, “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
Ask God for the patience that you need to get you through all the struggles, pain and trials and may you be like Jesus more and more as He fills you with His love.
