Patience, Please!

I am really impatient. Like really impatient! If you see me angry, there’s a pretty high chance that it’s because of impatience. I guess this comes from a subconscious worry about what tomorrow holds. I’ve got a lot to do, a lot of ambitions to accomplish, and a lot of callings to obey. I can’t do it all on my own! And sometimes I forget that I don’t have to do any of it on my own. Anxiety that I won’t measure up or get it all done drives my impatience as I lose sight of the Lord.

When my impatient parts take over it boils over to unnecessary anger. I don’t consider myself an angry person either, so when my lack of patience leads to anger it throws me off for quite a while. Upon realizing my petty harshness I get even more upset because I then become upset with myself. Funny, I guess I get impatient with my own impatience!

Sometimes I even get impatient with other people’s impatience. That’s when things get seriously heated. Now you’re behaving in a way that I never would! Wait, what? I just said… Hypocrite. At that point I’ve refused to extend grace where I know I personally need it. How can you expect grace when you’re graceless?! So deadly is impatience that it blinds us from our Christ-like basics. Maybe if we’d just relax, the Man of Grace could lead us!

His grace is in fact what will relax us! But why is it so difficult to think this way? To that I’d say: Impatience is one of the hardest things to be gracious about because it’s so darn impulsive. It happens almost immediately; our only warning being that we know we’re prone to it. I wish that were enough. It usually isn’t! The only way to conquer impatience in full is to learn how to control our impulses. Much easier said than done.

Our impulses come from our flesh, the deeply ingrained natural man. That goes to say that patience is a miracle of the highest standard. It marks the overcoming of our deepest drives and desires. The calming of the sea of anxieties. Patience reveals a new man! A change in a man that could only be perfected by the renewing power of Jesus Messiah! You can work to be patient, but it is impossible to maintain without the impartation of His amazing grace. (Galatians 5:17, Romans 7:5)

Only the Lord has perfect patience. Only the Lord can provide it. An unfair trial, an undeserved scourging, and an unmercifully vicious and vicarious death. Yet not a word by Him was said. He is the long-suffering patient one. That is the example I follow. That is the power that enables me to imitate! He is! I cry out to Him, “Lord, patience please! Patience, please! Be patient with me and give me that same patience!”

May we receive an abundance of the Spirit fruits that exhibit His patience found in Galatians 5:22-23! “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Join me in crying out to the King of kings for patience, please!

“The wonderful thing about God’s grace is that it not only forgives you, but it delivers you and it not only delivers you, but it works to fundamentally transform you.” – Paul Tripp

“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” – ‭James‬ ‭5:7-8‬,