Steadfast, Immovable, Abounding

This is the fourth installment in my series of posts about the fruit of the Spirit

How would you define patience? Sometimes we associate patience with having self-control during annoying, frustrating, or needlessly time-consuming situations. Perhaps we could call it “a willingness to wait.” The traffic is backed up for a mile. The cashier is moving so slowly and still forgot to give you that discount. You’ve been on the phone for over an hour with customer service and still can’t get past the automated menu options. Patience faces these situations head-on and remains loving and gracious. But I think there’s a whole lot more to patience than not crying over spilt milk.

We’ve probably all been through situations where it felt like God was hesitating. We were so sure we knew what God’s will was and kept waiting for Him to act…but then He didn’t, and we didn’t understand. The knowledge of God’s omnipotence can make this even harder. We know God has absolute power to supply our need, so it seems inconceivable when He doesn’t do what we ask. But it is our attitude in the valley which builds our endurance to climb the mountain. It is during trials when our trust and faith in God are tested—do we really mean it when we say, “Thy will be done”?

The awe-inspiring realization of God’s tireless patience with us is the best remedy for our impatience with Him. What marvelous patience our God has. He’ll never say, “you’ve failed me one too many times.” Instead, He gives us this everlasting promise of forgiveness: If “My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). So often, we blunder about recklessly, refusing to accept God’s guidance and will. He sees and knows it all, yet that does not deter His graciousness and compassion toward us.

We don’t only need God’s patience before the moment of salvation. We need it desperately each and every moment of our lives. Salvation doesn’t mean we’ll never sin, rather it washes clean the blame of our sin and instills in us the relentless desire for holiness. Yet even in our sin, God’s patience never wears out. As Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance,” and later in verse 15, we are told to “regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.”

If God is so eternally patient with our blundering steps of faith, how could we not be patient with His forever perfect plan? In Luke 8, we read, “And there came a man named Jairus, and he was an official of the synagogue; and he fell at Jesus’ feet, and began to implore Him to come to his house; for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying.” While Jesus is on his way to Jairus’s house, surrounded by the crowds, a sick woman makes her way through the crowds toward Him. She touches the fringe of His cloak, believing in faith that doing so will heal her. She is healed, but the encounter postpones Jesus’ journey to Jairus’s house. Verse 49-50 says: “While He was still speaking, someone came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, ‘Your daughter has died; do not trouble the Teacher anymore.’ But when Jesus heard this, He answered him, ‘Do not be afraid any longer; only believe, and she will be made well.’” Later on, we read that Jesus goes to Jairus’s house and raises his daughter from the dead.

Can you imagine being in Jairus’s shoes? He had faith in Jesus’s power, enough faith to ask Him to come and heal his daughter. He believed he knew what the plan of God was: Jesus would come to his house, heal his daughter from her illness, and all would be well. And yet this “plan” was interrupted and postponed until eventually, it was too late. But Jesus had something far greater in store than Jairus could ever have imagined. It’s easy to be impatient when we don’t think God is working fast enough, but impatience with God truly arises from questioning His sovereignty. We try to superimpose God’s power on our timeframe. If we step back and wait on the Lord, we will be amazed at how much greater His plans are than our own. Jairus surely wanted to hurry Jesus so that his daughter would be healed. But instead, he got to witness an even greater miracle take place. Isaiah 25:9 says, “And it will be said in that day, ‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” If you’re wondering why God seems hesitant, why He isn’t working things out the way you wish, take a step back. Listen to His voice. Hear Him say, “My child, I am with you. Just be patient, and watch My plan unfold.”