Patience.
Of all virtues, this is definitely one of the most difficult to learn. We all want what we want when we want it. We hate to wait.
We pick the shortest line in the grocery store.
We peek at the last chapter before we start reading the book.
We order dinner online so we can just walk in, pick it up, & get out of Dodge.
Today’s Digi-Doodle is a simple reminder that patience really is a virtue worth developing…and we can be patient – with the help of the Holy Spirit.
The truth is, on our own, it is impossible for us to be patient. We just don’t have it in us.
However, when we admit our sin to God, believe that Jesus died as the punishment for our sin, and confess with our mouths that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, God sends His Holy Spirit to live in our hearts (our inner being).
When the Holy Spirit moves into our hearts, He brings a number of gifts with Him that He then gives to us. These gifts include what is commonly known as the fruit of the Spirit and one part of this fruit of the Spirit is patience. Thus, with Jesus in our lives, we have patience, we just need to exercise it to make it stronger.
That’s what 1 Timothy 6:11 is telling us to do when is says, “Always try to do what is right, to be devoted to God, and to have faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” Paul was encouraging Timothy – and is encouraging us – to do what we need to do to exercise our patience so this virtue will become stronger and more prevalent in our everyday lives.
If you haven’t welcomed Jesus and His Holy Spirit into your heart and life, please do so right now. When you do, you will be able to claim not only patience, but all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and will have the Holy Spirit to help you exercise those gifts so they become stronger and stronger as days go by.
If you are already a believer in Jesus and His Spirit is currently living in your heart, you already own the gifts of the Spirit, including the fruit of the Spirit and the patience that is a part of that fruit. I encourage you to pray and ask God to help you diligently exercise all of those gifts. As you use those gifts, you will become more and more like Jesus day by day.
Related Bible Verses:
Galatians 5:22 & 23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Romans 12:12 – “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Romans 8:25 – “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
Ephesians 4:2 – “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Romans 5:1-4 – “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
James 5:7 & 8 – “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near."
Colossians 1:9-12 – “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light."