Patience: God’s Timing for His Servants

A Quick Quiz on Patience

1) In Galatians 5:23: “Love, joy peace, patience…,” how many fruits of the Spirit should a Christian typically have?

2) Is there anything wrong with this: “Some facets of the fruit of the Spirit are easier to acquire than others. Once you understand what patience is, then patience is one of the easier facets. Do you consider yourself patient? Do others see you as patient? If you are not patient, you should start fixing that right now!”

3) Is it always, sometimes, or never patient to tell someone to slow down?

4) Is it always, sometimes, or never patient to tell someone to hurry up?

5) Is there anything wrong with this sentence: “Pray for more patience, and rejoice when God answers your prayer.”

If you did not do well on this quiz, when, be patient. Hopefully the rest of this article will teach you what you need to know and start practicing.

What is Patience?

   Patience is wanting to do things God’s way, at the speed God wants, in God’s timing.

   Picture a powerful king who are servants at his call in the throne room. Sometimes God might give a message to a servant to run and give to a general, an administrator, or even another king. But most of the time, a servant will just be standing or sitting in the room, just waiting for the king’s command in the king’s timing. Likewise, since we are servants of God, we have given God not just our finances, our ambitions, and our very selves, but also our time.

   Colossians 3:12 says we are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. So we can glorify God by others seeing our patience. Patience has some overlap with peace, gentleness, and forgiveness; it can be loving and kind to be patient with someone. John Chrysostom (died 407 A.D.) described patience as “fully able to get revenge, but refusing to do so.” That is more forgiveness, but relates to patience waiting on God also.

Patience is All Greek to Me

   There are different Biblical Greek words for different kinds of patience.

Makrothume focuses on patience towards people. Mt 18:26,29; Rom 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9. Similarly, in the Old Testament, 2 Samuel 16:10-13 emphasizes the patience of David towards Saul.

Hupomone means patience towards things or circumstances. Verses using this word are James 5:11; Hebrews 12:1; Romans 12:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:3. The phrase “God of patience”, using this word is in Romans 15:5.

Anexikakos means to bear up against evil. 2 Timothy 2:24

Epieikes is somewhat related. It means gentle, yielding reasonableness. Verses that use this are 1 Timothy 3:2-3 (gentle),  Philippians 4:5; Titus 3:2; James 3:17; 1 Peter 2:18

Lk 21:19

2 Pet 1:6

   In the Old testament Psalm 37:7 (hul); Psalm 42:1 (qawd); Ecclesiastes 7:8 (arek)

   God has patience, and we can praise Him to that!

Exodus 34:6; Romans 2:4; 1 Peter 3:20

James on Patience

Sometimes something can have more than one opposite: for example, a black circle might be considered the opposite of a white circle. But a colorful plaid circle might be considered the opposite of a white circle, as would a white square.

   It is interesting to see the contrasts the Book of James makes with patience.

   After discussing why we need to be patient in James 5:7-8, James contrasts this with grumbling against each other in James 5:9. After giving examples of the patience of the prophets and Job, James says not to swear on anything, but let your “yes” be yes, and your “no” be no.

James 5:7-8 “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil — how patient he is for the fall and spring rains. You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.” (Berean Bible)

   James 5:10-11: “Brothers, as an example of patience in affliction, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” (Berean Bible)

   In 1853 a mission society discussed whether to close a mission church in Ongole, India because only 10 people had become Christians in 15 years. Samuel Smith, who wrote “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” was on the board, and he wrote the following “Shine on, Lone Star, in grief and tears, and sad reverse off baptized shine on amid thy founder’s fears. The stars in Heaven are not despised. The next day, he shared this with the reason of the mission board, and the unanimously decided to continue supporting the church. Today the church has 15,000 members. (From Encyclopedia of Bible Illustrations p.984.

Why are you Impatient?

   Perhaps you feel you would rather be somewhere else. But then, are you following your own agenda or God’s? If God really wants you to be somewhere else right now, then go there. But it not, then take your time enjoying being exactly where you believe God wants to you be right now.

   Not meeting my expectations for how long this should take.

   People are often impatient when they feel another person not meeting their expectations.

   You might think yourself better or more important than someone else, - at least in your own eyes. But see Philippians 2:3 (really Philippians 2:3-11). Jesus was definitely better and more important than us, and I am certainly glad He made time for us!

   An antidote for all of this is to stop and ask yourself, “Why are you still here?” God could have you die right now, but He still has you on earth for a reason. What is your primary reason for being here?

   Some might think it is to grow, learn, help others, share the gospel, or make disciples. But as the primary reason all of those are wrong answers. The one right answer is to love and glorify God. Those other things are not bad, but they are just a part of glorifying God. You are God’s servant, not your own. Your time belongs to God, not to you.

   People in the Bible were impatient at times. Abraham and Sarah when they tried to “help God out” by making Hagar a concubine. The people under Moses were impatient to go to the promised land. They were led by there famous genera: “Frank Sinatra, who sang “I did it my way.” Saul was impatient in not waiting for Samuel. Each of those acts of impatience had bad long-term consequences.

Wanting to Go Faster is not Always Impatience

   But some people can genuinely be too slow to learn something as the Hebrews 5:11-12 says: “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!” (Berean Bible)

Different Kinds of Patience

a) Patient with your time

   Patience does not mean to get used to doing things slowly. It means wanting to do things at the speed God wants in God’s timing.

   Patience is not just an excuse for wasting time or being slow.

b) Patience towards others

   You can be more patient towards some people than others. It could be your boss, people who report to you, your husband or wife, children, parents, friends, strangers, or others.

   Sometimes a person might ask us to be more patient with them, and we should be. Other times a person might ask us to be more patient with them changing something, because they have no intention of changing and are just trying to buy time. Being patient with that is not what God wants.

c) Patience towards God

   In probably almost every Christian’s life, there are times when God does not fulfill our expectations of what we think He should do. Often we do not know why until later. Sometimes even until we die we still don’t know why.

   Adam and Eve probably wondered about that when God allowed Cain to kill Abel. Abraham wondered about that when he was promised descendents without him yet having any children. Job wondered about that for himself and his family. David wondered about that when being chased by Saul. Habakkuk wondered about that too for the people of Judah that he loved. Jonah wondered about that, with his lack of love for the Ninevites.

   As Beth Moore says, “We should be unoffended by the unexplained.” God did not immediately answer their wondering, and He often does not answer ours. But we need to be patient about God’s ways, for as Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.'”. (Berean Bible)

d) Patience towards yourself

   Sometimes, such as after a medical problem or surgery, you can be impatient that you cannot do some things as well or as fast as you could before. But again, your life and your time are not your own. God wants you to realize where you are right now, and to glorify Him in this place and time.

   But patience for yourself should not be an excuse or rationalization for tolerating sin. If you have a bad habit, addiction, or other sin, the time God wants you to start struggling for victory of that is right now. It might take time, there might be relapses, and you can be patient about that, but with the power of the Holy Spirit in you, you should be on the path to victory of that today.

For Further Reading

Unger’s Bible Dictionary p.829-830

The New International Dictionary of the Bible p.755-756

Wycliffe Bible Dictionary p.1287

   For more info please contact: www.biblequery.org. as well as

http://lifeverlaasting.blogspot.com/2012/06/marks-of-christian-patience.html

by Steven M. Morrison, PhD.