Galatians 5:22-26
Fruits of the Holy Spirit
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
God wants us to be patient...One of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit is patience...And with patience there comes a peace...As St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians: It is best to be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love...Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace...
Impatience can lead to a more painful and a more anxiety producing time...When impatience overwhelms us, we go about in haste and do not think as accurately and are not as focused as when we are patient...And this haste makes it harder for us to become patient, because we are more agitated and must slow down and be patient with the things that are going on around us for us to think more clearly...Our emotions want us to do something, or anything -right now...
Patience is wisdom or at least a form of wisdom...Wisdom encourages us to to be patient...When we are suffering patience tells us that it is better to understand and accept the fact that things unfold in God's time and God's will...As we get better with practicing patience, we learn to cultivate patience and become better in wisdom because our emotions and feelings seem to want us to think in terms of haste...Wisdom leads us to quieter times so we can get a clearer picture of what is happening and what is going on around us...Patience gives us space and room to treat ourselves as we would want our friends to be treated...If we hurry through this day, is a better day awaiting us tomorrow?...Only our Father knows if that is true...
Patience can be defined as the ability to bear pain or trials calmly while enduring waiting as the time passes...A positive perseverance helps us to be patient...The patient person is not hasty or impetuous, but is persevering and steadfast, despite difficulties or adversity...But a patient person is one who is caring about himself or herself as these pains and trials are around us...So when James says, “Ye have heard of the patience of Job” (James 5:11), I wonder...Some biblical scholars agree that the Greek word (hupomone) translated by the KJV as “patience” might mean something more like “endurance” or even “persistence.”(According to Professor Tod Linafelt)...Job said, “What strength do I have, that I should still hope?...What prospects, that I should be patient?...Do I have the strength of stone?...Is my flesh bronze?...Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?...And when James said in this sense, I think of Job of how he persevered and did his best to be patient...But as Job's trials mounted, he seemed to grow less calmly and became more impatience with those around him and wanted answers...
So patience is not easy and we see this with Job...As the book of Job goes on, Job himself only becomes more impatient...He us is judgmental and critical of life and says, “I loathe my life,” and therefore, “I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul”...
Being in touch with God helped Job bring back his patience and his wisdom...Let us be with God more and more to cultivate our patience and wisdom...