Are you holding on to your fruit or is it slipping away?
How is your patience?
Feeling restless, frustrated, or irritated?
Angry, anxious, or stressed?
Many of us are more familiar with these attributes and symptoms than we care to admit.
But, if impatience encompasses the list above, then patience must embody characteristics such as calm, relaxed, peaceful, and composed. How can we turn the negative signs and fallouts of impatience to a more positive state of patience?
Sigh.
Patience. The art of waiting calmly. The act of remaining unruffled regardless of our circumstances. The capacity to tolerate and endure suffering.
Have you ever experienced a long period of waiting? Maybe you waited for a response from a job interview or acceptance to a university or trade school. Or you waited for the birth of a niece, nephew, or grandchild. Waiting can cause us to become restless and anxious.
Sometimes the wait seems endless. We don’t always get an answer in an hour, or a day, or even weeks.
Patience.
The Bible talks about patience, or longsuffering (depending on the version you read). Think about the words long and suffering. You got it. Together they mean you have the ability to endure suffering or hardship for a long time, willing to extend grace rather than surrender to the moment. God is the epitome of longsuffering. He is patient with us. However, He has and likely will again reach a point when He will take no more.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau said, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Remember Job in the Bible. We sometimes refer to someone as having the “patience of Job.” Insight into the commonly used phrase is found in James 5:10-11: “… You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”
The fruit of patience. Sweet.
Can we increase our capacity for patience? Is it in our human nature? Or is the aptitude for patience learned?
I believe the key to the capacity for patience is perseverance with a positive attitude. Press on. Keep moving forward. Never give up.
After years of exercising sporadically and not seeing any results, I am finally sticking with a workout regimen. Yay me! In the past, I would start out strong then begin quickly to make excuses not to exercise. Missing one or two days can get me out of a habit, yet it takes at least two or three weeks to get into a habit. Go figure. I don’t do well on my own, so I’ve joined a fitness center that has a trainer on staff. I train for an hour twice a week, then try to do other exercises on my own. Sometimes I do well with the other exercises, sometimes I don’t. The beauty of the fitness center is the other women who encourage me as I strive to do better. With every day of exercise I get a little stronger and build a little more stamina.
It’s going to take time and a lot of patience to get my body in shape. I’m not talking about a bikini body, but rather a body with stamina, energy, and endurance. With a positive, can-do attitude I am determined to stick with the program.
Positive attitude. Perseverance. Patience.
Going back to the first of this series, “Hold On to Your Fruit”, you’ll recall that as Christ followers, we are called to walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16) and live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit (5:25). That means putting patience into action.
What do you think? The Bible tells us to put on patience. “So, as God’s own chosen people, who are holy [set apart, sanctified for His purpose] and well-beloved [by God Himself], put on … patience [which has the power to endure whatever injustice or unpleasantness comes, with good temper]; (Colossians 3:12 AMP–emphasis mine)
How is your temper? Do you have a solid grip on your patience?
How will you clothe yourself in patience today?
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