Patience As a Fruit of the Spirit

We’ve all heard it a million times: “Patience is a virtue.” Usually when we hear this, it’s either because we’re being impatient and someone says it to try to get us to cool down, or we say it to ourselves when we’re struggling to remain patient, hoping the reminder will give us the fortitude to continue. But today, I want to present a way to understand patience that will be far more helpful for us.

We’re talking about patience today as the Fruit of the Spirit. As we highlighted in our overview for the Fruit of the Spirit, this means that patience is not something that comes from ourselves, it’s something the Spirit gives to us. Remembering that, we can see the futility of throwing virtue in someone’s face when they aren’t living it out. It also doesn’t make much sense to look at ourselves with the expectation that we can pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and make something happen. Instead, we need to remind ourselves and others to look at God. He is the source.

We have to step back from the story our culture is telling and look for a better narrative.

We certainly know that our culture isn’t going to do much to help us develop patience. For most of us, if we need something there is an abundance of stores within a few miles where we can stop by to pick up whatever we’re looking for. But even in the cases where the stores don’t have the stock, or we don’t have time to shop, we can simply order it online to be delivered to us the very same day. And if we want to watch or listen to something, we can open it up and play it immediately—no matter where we are. We all have computers in our pockets, and our ear pods allow us to take in whatever we want without disturbing the people around us. We are conditioned to expect that we can have what we want at the time we want it.

So we have to step back from the story our culture is telling and look for a better narrative. The Apostle Paul has some good things to say on the subject. In Romans 12:12 he says to “be patient in affliction.” This means we shouldn’t expect all of our trouble to be over quickly, but we can know that the Lord will be working in and around us to carry us through. And shortly after he talks about the Fruit of the Spirit, he also says we should “not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up” (Galatians 6:9). So every day we should “be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” because we know He is fueling everything we do and providing what we need (Psalm 37:7).

It’s true that patience is a virtue, and we all need more of it in our lives. But we can’t forget we need the Spirit to help us truly grow in patience. Remember that the next time your WiFi blinks out and Instagram won’t load, and use the delay to pray instead of sigh.