Patience

Keith Webb

Whenever I hear or see the word patience, I am reminded of the Herbert the snail in the children’s musical, Music Machine, singing “Have patience, have patience, don’t be in such a hurry. When you get impatient you only start to worry. Remember, remember that God is patient too and think of all the times when others have to wait for you.”

What is patience? The dictionary definition is “calm endurance under pain, weariness or provocation.” That pretty well describes patience form our human understanding, but what does Scripture call patience?

The word translated patience in Galatians 5:22 is the word “makrothymia” (sounds like a disease a computer would get!), which literally means “to deter anger” or “the prolonged restraint of anger”. Wow! In light of our understanding that the fruit of the Spirit is produced as a result of our relationship, our intimacy, with the Father, how appropriate is that? One of the attributes of God that we find throughout Scripture is that He is “slow to anger”, longsuffering and patient with man’s wrongdoing, withholding his anger so that all may be saved. (see Numbers 14:18, Psalm 86:15; 103:8, Joel 2:13). Where would we be if it were not for God’s patience with us?  

Patience is a characteristic of God and of the person who is connected to Jesus, a person who is “keeping in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25)