Did you hear about the physician who was always in a hurry? He had patients, but he didn’t have patience. (You may groan now.) Truth be told, patience is a virtue deficient in many of us.
Think about it: On the roadways, our patience is tested almost continuously. Slow drivers in the fast lane. Traffic lights taking forever to turn green so we can proceed toward our destination. And the driver ahead of us apparently falling asleep waiting for the light to change. Traffic jams at the most inopportune times. Driving is my greatest reminder that my patience isn’t what it should be.
There are many other areas where patience – or one’s lack of it – is manifested: Doctors’ offices. The DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) that might as well be the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), since we feel like taking up arms. Store checkout lines. Important phone calls that seem way overdue.
You could add examples of your own, but the point is we’re a very impatient people. Waiting and suffering through delays are sure blood-pressure boosters.
If I hear someone say they’re praying for patience, I cringe. Because I’ve learned one of God’s most preferred and effective ways for developing patience is to use circumstances that force us to be patient.
“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.”
Sometimes we misread that passage as stating the “fruits” of the Spirit, but as I understand it, these virtues aren’t separate; they’re part of the same tree, rooted in the Holy Spirit. In other words, if we exhibit much love and joy but manifest a serious deficit in virtues like patience, or goodness, or gentleness, that’s a good indication that – like symptoms that reveal an illness – something’s wrong.
As believers we should find ourselves growing in every aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, but for now let’s focus on patience. Because for some, patience is the greatest stumbling block. I’ve written about this before, but passages like Psalm 37:7, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him,” and Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God,” have caused me considerable consternation over the years.
‘I don’t want to wait, Lord! ‘I want to do something – just tell me what to do!’
But how can we make ourselves be patient when that’s not our inclination? Some folks seem calm and composed regardless of the circumstances, and good for them. But what if we’re not wired that way?
This is why it’s important to appropriate the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:17, that we are “new creations” in Jesus Christ. That everyone who’s a genuine follower must be “born again,” as He declared in John 3:3.
My friend Oswald Chambers, whose writings in My Utmost for His Highest have ministered to me for decades, explains it better that I can. In one entry he says:
“The mystery of sanctification is that the perfections of Jesus Christ are imparted to me instantly – not gradually…. Sanctification is ‘Christ in me.’ It is Christ’s own wonderful life that is imparted to me by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace…. Sanctification means that Jesus gives me His patience, His love, His holiness, His faith, His purity, and His godliness. All these are manifested in and through every sanctified soul….”
We want to nod affirmation to those statements, but deep down we’re wondering, ‘Yes, I believe that. But why do I still struggle with being impatient (among other things)?’ This is where the astonishing words of the apostle Paul come in.
In Romans 7:15-20 he wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me….”
When I first read this, I initially thought Paul was writing in circles. Later I thought his statement – “Now if I do what I do not want to do it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” – was a copout. But the truth is, in Christ we are dead to sin – but sin is not dead to us. It can still influence our “flesh,” our sinful nature that remains with us.
We may never fully master impatience this side of eternity. It might even be for us the equivalent of what Paul termed his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7), a constant reminder of how desperately dependent we are on the Lord for living the way He desires.
As we grow spiritually, however, at the very least we can and should experience progress in this area – as well as others. As Paul declared, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13), and that includes being patient even when we see no good reason for doing so. Whenever I try to offer the excuse, ‘I can’t!”, the Lord is poised to respond, ‘I know. But I can!’
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