Patience

July 1

I Chronicles 1-2

Psalm 77:7-15

Proverbs 16:32-33

Acts 26

Patience

“Patience is better than power, and controlling one’s temper, than capturing a city.”

Proverbs 16:32

I cannot say I am very good at the whole patience thing, but I am better than I used to be. Right now, we are remodeling our house and I must admit that I have not always shown patience during this process. We have been living in our basement for 3 months with no kitchen or laundry, which has been more than a little challenging. On days when I can see progress, I’m fine, but inevitably there are days when nothing gets done and, on those days, I struggle with the patience thing. If you had asked me a few months ago if I was a patient person, I would have told you that I was. Now, I can’t honestly say that. Patience is like the other fruits of the spirit. I don’t think we can develop them. I think God has to develop them in us. Looking back, I can see that He has been developing patience in me. The process of developing character traits doesn’t happen overnight. It happens little by little by little. It comes through being in situations where you have to exercise that trait. You can’t develop character traits by reading about them in a book. Head knowledge can aid in the process, but the only way to develop that trait is through exercising it. It is kind of like physical exercise. You can read all about it, know the best techniques for getting fit, and subscribe to all the fitness blogs, but until you do the exercises consistently and diligently, you will not develop any muscle and the head knowledge will not do you any good.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control don’t come naturally. They are a work of the Holy Spirit in and through us. I think God puts us in a situation where we have to use that trait, we struggle at first and then slowly begin to do better at it. Then we get a break, and he works on something else. A while later he comes back to that trait and works on it again by putting us in a little more difficult situation where we need to use it. Slowly, but surely, we develop it. I’m not sure there will ever be a time when we can say we have complete patience, or complete gentleness, or complete self-control, but hopefully, when we examine our lives, we can see maturity in those areas. The verse above says that patience is better than power. I think that is equally true of all the other fruits of the spirit. Self-control is better than power. Gentleness is better than power. Faithfulness is better than power. The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives gives us control over our mind, will and emotions. That is truly better than power because it enables us to deal with all the situations in our lives with purpose instead of being controlled by our whims and desires.