The Promise of Patience

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Galatians 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

The Fruit of Patience

The Bible tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and so forth. The word used here in this verse for patience is longsuffering.

In this chapter, Galatians chapter 5, Paul makes a contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. He calls the acts of the flesh, the things the flesh does by nature, works. But the things of the Spirit he refers to as fruit.

Works versus Fruit

What’s the difference between works and fruit? Well, works are those things that are just done almost naturally, without much effort. He mentions things like hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, and strife. These are things that the fleshly nature does very easily.

Fruit, on the other hand, must be grown. They are not the things we do just by nature. Patience is not a thing that comes naturally. It must be developed and cultivated, as with any of the fruit of the Spirit.

It is not generally normal and natural to be patient. Is an infant patient when it’s hungry? No, because by nature, when human beings want something, they want it as soon as possible. Someone jokingly said, Lord, I need patience, and I need it right now.

Can we have Patience?

Patience, or longsuffering, along with all the fruit of the Spirit, can be ours. They are meant to be ours. That’s why the Bible tells us about the fruit of the Spirit.

Well, we know that the Spirit has all these good and desirable characteristics. And the Spirit of God is in every believer in Christ. Then, why don’t we just have those traits operating in us as Christians? Because they must be grown.

The Fruit is not Automatic

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Jesus called himself the vine, and referred to believers in Him as the branches. Now, the vine has the life of the vine within itself. Everything the vine can produce is contained in the vine. But where does the fruit grow? It grows on the branches.

Jesus has all the fruit of the Spirit within Himself. But that doesn’t mean that the fruit is automatically on the branch. The branch must abide in the vine. We must continue to abide in the Lord, to follow Him, and to grow in the knowledge of Him. But to grow fruit, we must practice the fruit, we must yield to the fruit.

No Pain, No Gain

It’s interesting that the Bible calls patience longsuffering. Long suffering means suffering for a long time. Suffering means pain. Being patient is painful. It goes against human nature. We don’t like it.

Exercise Patience

To have patience, to grow the fruit of patience, to be strong in patience, we must practice patience, or, that is, we must exercise it.

A bodybuilder understands this principle. Great bodybuilders, like Arnold Swartzennegar, talk about how they spent hours and hours of weight lifting every day for a long time to build the muscles they have. That’s how physical strength is built, through much exercise.

Great pianists will attest to practicing playing the piano on a daily basis for a long time. And they will quickly remind us of the old saying that practice makes perfect.

It’s true also with the fruit of the Spirit, whether it be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, or self-control. These things must be practiced.

Notice that self-control, or temperance, is also a fruit of the Spirit. Do we gain self control without practicing and exercising it? No. It’s the same way with the fruit of patience. It must be practiced.

Practicing Patience

How do we practice patience? We practice it by resisting the urge to be impatient every time it comes our way. How? By refusing to be impatient when the urge is strong.

It is the impatience, the feeling of impatience, that is the suffering in longsuffering, the pain we endure in being patient. We recognize it when it comes, we know that feeling, but we refuse to yield to it, and remain calm until it passes. No pain, no gain.

Driving the speed limit is a great way to practice patience. Not 5 MPH over, not 9 MPH over, but the speed limit. But, brother, that’s hard to do. No pain, no gain.

What about waiting in line at the bank, or at the restaurant? Those are great places to practice patience, to take that feeling of impatience and ignore it, even though it’s clamoring for our attention, and begging us to yield to it.

But if we refuse to yield to it, over time we will begin to notice that we are not being bothered so much by those feelings of impatience that seem to drive the rest of the world around us. We will notice that the fruit of patience has begun to grow on us.

Is it Worth the Pain?

Hebrews 6:12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Patience is part of inheriting the promises of God. Faith in God’s word is not enough. We must have faith and the patience to wait for the promise to come to pass in our lives. Faith can provide us with everything we need, but not without patience.

The Rewards of Patience

James 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

The Bible tells us that with patience, and by allowing patience to work in us, that we will be complete and entire, lacking nothing. Is it worth the small amount of pain needed to grow patience in our lives? Absolutely.