The Fruit of Patience

Happy Sunday! Today we continue our study of the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians chapter 5. Thus far we've looked at love, joy, and peace. Today we look at the fruit of patience. It seems that our world has run out of patience.

If you're in a restaurant and you see that somebody that was seated after you got their food before you, are you bothered? How about in the doctor's office? It's interesting to watch people in the waiting room. There's definitely a pecking order that's established. We look around and we say, I'm before you, and I'm before you, and you, and if they come in after you, they'd better not be called before you.

Now, it's okay if you're called before people who were before you. That's okay. But we live in an impatient world. It's interesting to me that people make excuses for not bearing this fruit. We say, well, I'm just not a patient person. Really? That's another way to say that you're walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit.

Going back a few weeks in our study, we began with the fruit of love. We usually go to First Corinthians chapter 13 when we seek the best definition of love, and verse four. Do you remember the first description of love? It says, "Love is patient." By the way, the next is kind. Remember, "love is patient, love is kind." We will look at the fruit of kindness next week.

The patience that is talked about in Galatians 5:22 is defined in some translations as long suffering. It's really the idea of being slow to anger. One definition I like is from John McArthur. He said patience is restraint that does not retaliate. Restraint that does not retaliate. Whatever was said to you, whatever was done to you, no matter how severe or serious, if you're walking in the Spirit, your anger is far away.

Have you ever wanted God to come back and judge the world because of all the evil? Have you been so fed up you just begged for judgment and wondered why God hadn't returned? That very question is addressed in the book of Second Peter, chapter three. We're given the answer to the question in verse 9, where it says, "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise," his promise of returning, "as some people think. No, he's being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent."

God is so patient with this world, more patient than you and I would be. Back to our definition earlier: thank God that he is slow to anger. Can we do that? Is it possible for us to be patient, to be slow to anger? Absolutely. We must, however, walk in the Spirit to be patient.

There are lots of great biblical examples. One of the first that came to my mind was Stephen. We find his story in Acts chapter six and seven. When we meet Stephen, he's been appointed by the twelve apostles to help with the ministry. We're told that he was full of faith and the Holy Spirit. He was also described of as full of God's grace and power. Plus, he was able to perform miracles and signs. He was the best of the best.

False witnesses made up lies about Stephen, and he was hauled before the high priest. Stephen preached a great sermon to the priest and the council that were gathered that day, but they did not want to hear the truth, so they decided to kill him. Again, please remember, he's innocent.

I'll pick up the story in Acts chapter 7, verses 58, 59-60, where it says, "They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. When they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, 'Lord Jesus, received by spirit.' That he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' When he said this, he died."

Can you imagine what you have prayed or what you have yelled in a moment like that? This so reminds me of the words of Jesus from the cross when he prayed, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Stephen, in this instance, acted like Jesus. You know, that is what we are to do every day. Isn't that our goal? It absolutely should be.

I'm amazed at Stephen's prayer: "Lord, do not hold this against them." I'm even more amazed that the prayer was answered. How do I know that it was answered? Verse 58 told us that the rock throwers laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. You remember Saul, Saul of Tarsus? He later became the apostle Paul, the greatest missionary who ever lived.

Stephen and Paul were world changers who were filled with the fruit of the Spirit. Both of them showed patience and love and joy and peace and all the fruit of the Spirit. Patience helps us live in this fallen world. Patience is a deep conviction that it can never be wrong to be Christ-like, and it can never be right to be unchrist-like.

Several years ago, I remember a teenager who had run away from home. She was troubled with a capital T. Some expected for her parents just to let her go. Everyone would have understood. She had caused him so much pain. Cut your losses, we might say.

What did the parents do? They got in their car, drove 250 miles to the town that they thought she had gone to, and then they proceeded to drive through every hotel parking lot looking for her vehicle. After a day and a half of searching, they found her, and they brought her back home. They patiently waited for her to change. She did. She grew out of her rebellious stage. In fact, she's a mother with kids of her own today.

The patience of her parents gave her a new life. The patience of our heavenly Father gives us new life. Bless you as you bear the fruit of patience.

Pray with me. Lord Jesus, thank you for the fruit of the Spirit and for the love and the joy and the peace and the patience that we see and others, and hopefully the world sees in us today. We thank you for being patient with us and giving us chance after chance. Help us to be slow to anger to this world that has gone crazy. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. God bless.