The Oxford Dictionary defines patience as “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.” The Merriam-Webster defines being patient as “bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint.”
Do you see the correlation? Both definitions imply suffering.
Patience is not a popular word, especially in the society we live in today. It’s pretty safe to say that most of us don’t like to have to wait or suffer — and we tend to voice our displeasure when we must do it.
Yet the Bible teaches extensively about patience, and so often it is not displayed in our circumstances.
Galatians 5:22-23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Patience as endurance is a quality we gain by going through trials.
James 1:3
“Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
Endurance and long-suffering are attributes of God, and they come from Him. He is the one who gives us the ability to suffer long and deal with people without getting easily angered. He is also the one who gives us the strength to endure trials and remain under them until His appointed time.
Proverbs 15:18
“A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.”
You may at this moment be in a lengthy trial, or perhaps you are just at the beginning of one. Be assured that the Lord Jesus Christ is fully aware of the road that you are on. He has allowed it, and He will be traveling with you.
Hebrews 13:5b
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”I encourage you to harvest the fruit of patience along this journey. There is no limit to the amount of this fruit—or any of the fruit of the Spirit—that can be harvested!
