PATIENCE IS A FRUIT

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel.

Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.

A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 14:29, 15:18, 16:32, 19:11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I think I can be relatively safe in making the following statement about our human nature:

“We don’t like to wait.”

It’s true, isn’t it?

Think about it. Do you enjoy waiting at a long checkout line? How about in traffic when things are bumper to bumper? Or when you are at a restaurant, have ordered, and are waiting for your food?

You get the point and you probably could give me a multitude of examples of when you had to wait and found yourself getting more than a little frustrated and even angry.

Look around our society and you’ll see signs of how we are catered to when it comes to our waiting problem.

We have fast food and drive throughs so we can get our food in a hurry. And oh by the way, most of the time we can’t wait to get home to eat it because we have to eat as fast as we get the food.

We have ATM’s so we can get money fast. After all, we don’t want to be bothered with waiting in a line at the bank or credit union.

Cars go faster than ever today, even the smaller ones because we have to get where we’re going fast. We cannot be delayed. We even have High Occupancy Vehicle (or HOV) lanes now so we can get places even faster and most of the time, usually outside of rush hour, they are open to everyone

Yes, we don’t like to wait and it breeds one very sinful trait within us - impatience. Our proverbs for today show us why impatience is so far from where the Lord wants us to be. For impatience produces the following transgressions:

1. Temper

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. Proverbs 15:18

One who is quick-tempered displays folly. Proverbs 14:29b

Everyone has a level of temperament. Those who lack patience find themselves quick tempered. Their temperature rises proportionately to the amount of time they have to wait and they have a very fast boil-over point. And when that happens, watch out for some form of conflict or folly is soon to follow. I’m sure you have seen more than your fair share of people act up in very childish and immature ways when they have lost their composure. I know I have. Think about how much that behavior fails to glorify the Lord who scripture tells us is slow to anger and abounding in love (Psalm 103:8) and you’ll see why we have to fix our impatience and eliminate it from our lives.

2. Folly.

One who is quick-tempered displays folly. Proverbs 14:29b

Our wicked, impish conduct when we’re impatient is nothing short of folly and the Lord expects us to eliminate foolishness from our lives and replace it with righteousness.

3. Conflict.

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. Proverbs 15:18

Impatience is always going to end up in conflict of some kind. You’re going to be angry and looking to take it out on someone like a fellow driver on the road, the cashier who is checking you out, or the waiter or waitress who is handling your table. We love to lash out at anyone we can find to let them know just how worked up we are. Usually, we come off looking silly and petty in the process.

Impatience is a big problem my friends and we had better start to deal with it better. Keep in mind that the Lord watches and sees all that we do and His word clearly tells us that He expects patience. Look at these two verses which serve to dictate the way we should be acting:

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23 (NRSV)

The world says, “Patience is a virtue.”

The Lord says, “It is a fruit of the Spirit” and therein is the key for us, the message the Lord longs to impart on our hearts today. For when we allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide our behavior, then and only then will that behavior begin to bear the fruits that come from the Spirit, fruits like faithfulness and love and joy and peace and kindness and generosity and gentleness and self-control and, of course, patience.

Our proverbs today show us some byproducts of bearing the fruit of patience. They include:

1. Great understanding.

Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly. Proverbs 14:29

When you eat the fruit of patience, you gain Vitamin T, T being tolerance. Tolerance leads us to be slow to anger and instead understanding that we need to wait sometimes. Sometimes there are circumstances that are out of a person’s control like not enough registers open to check people out and so that’s why the line is long. It isn’t the cashier’s fault. They are doing what they are supposed to do, take care of customers who come to their register. And yet, too often the impatient unload on them like they are the source of the issue when they aren’t. A person with great understanding sees the situation for what it is and instead of mistreating the cashier, they encourage and praise them for doing a great job in the midst of a difficult circumstance. After all, they had been treated the opposite way by nearly everyone else.

2. Conflict resolution.

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. Proverbs 15:18

A patient person tends to be a person who is restrained in their behavior. They aren’t easily excitable which means they aren’t likely to throw fuel on the fire of a brewing conflict and escalate the matter. Rather, the calming demeanor of the patient person leads to a calming of a quarrel with peace replacing war, solace replacing disagreement, resolution replacing discord.  

3. Self-control.

Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. Proverbs16:32

When we allow the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives and surrender our conduct to His direction, we will find ourselves as people of self control, our behavior dictated by the Lord and not our own impulses. The Lord will always bring order to disorder, regulation in the midst of chaos, discernment in the midst of confusion. If you want to be a person who always seems to be steadfast no matter what might come your way, allow the Lord to bear the fruits of the Spirit within you and you will always find yourself to the place of self-control.

4. Wisdom.

A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense. Proverbs 19:11

A wise person seeks the fruits of the Spirit and that wisdom leads to patience as well as all the other blessed character benefits one receives. It’s ultimately that wisdom that leads us to do the right thing, at the right instance, every time, no matter the circumstances.

Friends, we need to examine our hearts, minds, and souls to see how well we’re displaying forbearance in the things we do and the people we relate to. The word of God is clear today. We’re expected to live in patience and allow the Holy Spirit to take us to that place.

For patience is a fruit, sowed by the Spirit, and we’re expected to practice it in everything we do.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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