Patience

Patience is endurance, perseverance, long-suffering. It is waiting on something, or through something, and all the while not complaining. In the Greek New Testament there are two main words used to describe patience. Hupomone is endurance--dealing with things or circumstances. This is the kind of patience that we usually think of--persevering through difficult circumstances. The other form of patience, which draws on hupomone but is even more difficult to attain is makrothumia. Makrothumia is long-suffering in regards to PEOPLE. It is the “quality of a person who is able to avenge himself yet refrains from doing so.”

Pretty much everything in life will try our patience--from the little things that seem big at the time, like waiting in line or getting caught in traffic, to our families (kids that are acting up, husbands that are annoying), friends (who say they will do something, or who are just getting on our nerves), our coworkers and bosses, how our days are going, chores, politics, everything! Why is it so difficult to be patient? Probably because a lot of the things that try our patience tend to be things that happen over and over again.

Not only is it difficult in our own flesh to be patient, but our very culture seems to put little value on the individual developing that characteristic. We are definitely a now, now, now culture! We’ve got fast food, drive through pharmacies, everything available to us within seconds on the internet—we are conditioned to expect everything available to us in a matter of seconds. We also live in a very individualistic society, a “me-oriented” culture where we are supposed to look out for "number one" and to not be dependent on anyone else or have to wait on someone else to do something. If we are stuck waiting, we are told we should take over. There’s not a lot of push for us to stick it out in our society. If you don’t like your job--quit it! If you don’t like your house--move out! If you’re unhappy with church--just leave it!

However, God puts a high value on patience. As a matter of fact, He is our ultimate example of patience: "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9, ESV) He is patient with us because His patience is necessary for our salvation!

And we can use His patience as an example unto ourselves. By reading the Scriptures to remind ourselves of His patience and our hope, we can strive for unity; knowing that God is the one who gives us patience and he is patient with us as we should be with our fellow man: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 15:4-6, ESV)

The scriptures not only give us account after account of God's long-suffering, but it also shows us examples of humans who had the gift of patience. Take for instance Noah, who preached to His neighbors for 120 years and saw not a single convert. Or Simeon who waited in the temple His whole life knowing that the Lord promised he would see the Christ during his lifetime. Therefore have hope, dear believer, that as the world is against us and our very flesh clings to impatience, we can strive for the fruit of long-suffering as we know that God can give us the grace to persevere through His Holy Spirit.