Fruit of the Spirit Series
Do you feel entitled about something in your life so you act on it? Are you trying to take control to get a promise faster? Have you become indifferent, uninterested in God’s plan and promise for your life? Then perhaps it’s time to focus on growing patience. Patience says, I can wait. I can trust. Impatience asks, how long do I have to wait?
A car blared its horn at the car in front of it. Thankfully, the driver in front didn’t budge. The second driver could not see a pedestrian walking across the intersection.
But when I walked passed the first driver and into view of the second driver, immediately, that driver knew why the first driver didn’t move. Impatience can be noisy and dangerous.
Sometimes we don’t like that others don’t move at the pace we want them to, including God. Sometimes we don’t see what’s blocking our movement, but God does. If He’s not moving to let us go forward yet, He has a reason.
Jesus isn’t slow in moving. He just sees things that we don’t see yet. And most of the time He’s on a different pace than we are. No one is going to make Him move faster just because we honk at Him. Usually others don’t either.
Maybe it’s time we stop being so noisy and impatient because we want what we want when we want it, and instead, focus on growing our patience.
What Patience Is and What It Isn’t
Patience is when we bear the pain, suffering, and trial calmly, without complaining. Despite the opposition or difficulty, we are steadfast, not hasty, meaning not thoughtless, rash, impulsive, or careless.
Rather we have staying power. We’re steadfast. We endure quietly, peacefully, and calmly. We don’t honk our horns when we’re patient.
How does patience grow? The fruit of patience grows as we grow in wisdom. In fact, wisdom produces patience (Proverbs 19:11), and patience produces understanding (Proverbs 14:29).
That’s a triple harvest: wisdom, patience, and understanding.
If wisdom is needed for patience to grow, where do we get wisdom? Simply, from Jesus. Jesus is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). His wisdom has all the necessary parts to grow patience because “the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17).
If we want our patience to grow, we need Jesus to fertilize us with His wisdom. But we also need to pull some weeds to keep patience from being choked.
Sense of Entitlement Weed
Sense of entitlement occurs when we believe we have the right to something so we show disdain to others. Showing contempt or lack of respect is not Jesus’ way. His fruit won’t tolerate the weed of entitlement.
Entitlement chokes patience every single time. In fact, that’s entitlement’s mission. In the world right now, the weed of entitlement runs rampant. It’s creeping, crawling, and sprawling through every aspect of life, and it’s choking people.
When was the last time you thought you deserved something right now and you acted on that belief?
Like the second driver at the stoplight believed she should get to go RIGHT NOW, so she honked loudly trying to get the driver in front of her to move, have you honked at someone lately because you’re tired of waiting? And I don’t just mean actual honking a horn, I also mean, honking with the words, tones, and actions you’ve used.
Who have you done this to? Your kids, spouse, coworkers, neighbors, DMV employee?
Don’t let a sense of entitlement lead you to cause harm to others. Honking is complaining. It’s also a warning sign we’re choosing a sense of entitlement over patience. Yank that weed out immediately.
Weed of Taking Control
Do you have what it takes to wait for God’s promise and provision even if it takes 25 years? That’s how long Abraham and Sarah waited for God’s promise of having a child, a son named Isaac (Genesis 21).
Sarah did tire of waiting, so she honked her horn, if you will, and she tried to make it happen faster. All she did was create a mess and bring lots of harm to herself and others. You can read about her impatient decision in Genesis 16 when she instructed her husband to sleep with her maidservant to bring a son into their family. That was not what God intended or promised.
We need to be careful that as we wait for God to fulfill His promises to us that we don’t take control and try to make it happen faster. When we do, we often can’t undo the outcome. Sarah could never undo the birth of Ishmael. She regretted her impatient decision.
Patience requires trusting even when we don’t see what or why it’s taking so long. Trust that God knows best. Give Him complete control. When He knows the timing is right, He will turn the light green.
Weed of Indifference
We need to be careful that as we wait for God to fulfill His promise to us that we don’t lose our desire for the promise. We need to be on the lookout for the weed of indifference. It’s a deadly weed to patience.
When practicing patience for a long time, there’s a risk of becoming indifferent. We may stop pursuing, hoping, and caring. We may become uninterested, unconcerned, and even apathetic.
We may start to believe God doesn’t fulfill His promises to us. So, we go about our lives not thinking about that which we once desired and hoped for. When things take so long or are so difficult, we may lament like David did in Psalm 13:
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Four times David asked God, “how long?”
Longsuffering requires us to be diligent. Persevering in caring, hoping, anticipating, and not letting the wait rob us of the blessing even when we are in pain, sorrowful, or just tired of waiting for the promised baby.
Don’t give up and miss the blessing. Learn to identify indifference in your life. Go ahead and lament to God like David did.
What’s your “How long, Lord?”
How long, Lord ____________________ (fill in the blank)?
But remember, at the end of David’s “how-long” lament, he proclaimed his trust in the Lord. We can too.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Trusting and Waiting
Reconsider what faith in Jesus means to you. Are you trusting Jesus even when He’s not moving forward? Or are you honking your horn?
Do you feel entitled about something in your life so you act on it? Are you trying to take control to get the promise faster? Have you become indifferent, uninterested in God’s plan and promise for your life?
If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to start weeding.
As we wait for the Lord, we need trust Him. We need to trust His ways and His timing are perfect. He’s not going to move just because we honk. He’s still God. He will continue to love us, be gracious to us, and wait until He knows all is clear, all is safe, and the light turns green. Then He will move. Then we can move forward too.
Keep trusting. Keep waiting. Keep weeding. Keep growing.
The fruit of the Spirit patience grows as we seek wisdom. Patience also grows as we practice waiting without complaining. Start tilling your heart’s field with wisdom and watch patience grow. Don’t be surprised as your patience grows, a harvest of understanding is produced too.
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