The Fruit of the Spirit: Patience is a Virtue…

by David Chadwick

Patience is a virtue… but it’s also a fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit are an all for one and one for all package deal. Once you abide in Christ and Christ in you, you will bear much fruit (John 15:5).

When we are abiding with Jesus, connected to the Spirit, we will operate in patience. The word patience in the Greek is makrothymia. It means long suffering or fortitude. It implies a willingness to be willing to wait in spite of what our eyes can see. In the Amplified Bible, patience is described not as “the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting.”

Patience is proven in a heart that trusts every minute and second to God’s perfect, providential plan. It is evidenced in a heart that is yielded to God’s timetable for everything.

As we learn to wait on the Lord and trust him in everything, our strength arises. Isaiah 40:31 says, “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Even in the midst of chaos and destruction, we can remain confident that God has neither abandoned us nor his world. As we remain in the waiting room of faith, God builds us and makes us stronger.

Do any of you lift weights? If so, you know that weight lifters are made stronger by lifting heavier weights. In the same way, followers of Jesus are made stronger by lifting heavier “waits.” Sometimes it is only in the waiting of God’s timing and purposes that our spirits become stronger and stronger.

Dear friends, did you know that we are in a war? We have been called by God to strengthen ourselves in the Lord, much like David did when he was in great distress (1 Samuel 30:6). David knew the fruit of enduring and being long-suffering. In doing so, we can run and grow weary, walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).

I pray for God’s Spirit to be enlarged in each of your hearts so that more patience would come to your souls!