We recently went to be with a friend in the emergency room. We got there as quickly as we could to see our friend, but the ER personnel made us wait to go in while some things were being taken care of. I hated sitting in the waiting room knowing that our friend had been hurt. I kept getting up and walking around. It was hard to sit still. It seemed like forever before they finally let us go in! Don’t you hate waiting?

I once had the opportunity to teach elementary school students about the fruit of the Spirit we call patience. To begin the lesson I had found a video called “The Marshmallow Test.” Children were told that if they didn’t eat the marshmallow set in front of them while the adult was out of the room they could have two marshmallows when the adult returned. The camera captures the longing and reasoning in the children’s faces. Most didn’t wait until the adult returned and fully enjoyed their one marshmallow. But those kids who were able to restrain themselves had, not only two marshmallows, but the inner triumph of knowing that they had endured. You could see it on their faces. Their patience was rewarded with, not only another marshmallow, but the development of their character. Whereas the one-marshmallow kids were able to enjoy their treat, the two-marshmallow kids learned the lesson that waiting has intangible rewards as well as tangible ones Could those kids articulate all that they had received? Of course not! But the next time they were in a situation that required enduring, they would know that they could. My study in preparing for that lesson gave me a greater understanding of just what patience is and how much I need it.

Patience is much more than just waiting. The dictionary definition of patience is “the ability to accept or tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset.” If we were to stop right there, most of us would fail in the patience department, right? My recent experience in the emergency room is just one example! However, the Biblical word that is translated “patience” has an even deeper meaning than the English language is able to say in one word. It conveys the idea of having a “long fuse” when it comes to anger, but in certain contexts it also expresses a divinely-empowered ability to endure. Divinely empowered. Wouldn’t that be why patience is a fruit of the Spirit?

Patience, divinely empowered patience, is about putting up with people or situations that are not the way we want them to be. I can think of a few of those. How about you? It’s also about waiting for God to work things out His way. I’m pretty good at telling God how I’d like Him to work things out, but I am getting better at waiting for Him to do things His way. The Holy Spirit is available to empower you and me with the ability to endure beyond what is possible in our own human strength. I know I need that! I expect you do, too!

At it’s core, patience is really about enduring. Enduring that person who gets on your last nerve. Enduring that situation that makes you want to just quit. Enduring the pain of disappointment or delay. Patience is more than just waiting, it’s waiting with expectation that God is for you, even though you might not see it. It’s more than just waiting and expecting something good to happen, because often that isn’t the case. It’s about persevering under trial with dignity and grace. Patience endures with dignity and perseveres with grace. Patience looks over annoyances because they aren’t part of the solution to the problem; they are bumps in the road. Patience is not about ignoring the situation. Patience doesn’t overlook anything, it looks past it, staying focused on the greater reward of a character that is increasing in Christ-likeness and a desire to honor God in our response to whatever situation we find ourselves in.

Just waiting may be difficult, but doesn’t really require divine empowering. To endure unfair treatment or another’s weakness, to persevere through the most difficult of circumstances requires more than just waiting. It requires a strength that none of us possesses. It requires the divine empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Whatever it is that you are going through right now, that situation that is causing you trouble or suffering, that hope that is delayed, that person whose habits demand every bit of energy to bear with them, whatever it is, the Holy Spirit can empower you to endure with God-honoring patience. Just as Jesus endured, so can you because His Holy Spirit lives in you. Your struggle is natural and human. Your ability to endure will be divinely empowered, supernatural, if you will let His Spirit fill you.

Key Thought: Patience is divinely empowered endurance.

A Scripture to consider: Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him to act. Psalm 37:7 NLT

A YES Challenge: As you consider the situations or people that are requiring patience from you right now, ask the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit and give you divine empowering to endure.

Prayer: Father God, at this moment, the thought of persevering is more than I think I can bear. I don’t feel like I can take one more unkind word, one more disappointment. I can’t do it. I know I can’t. The only way that I will make it through is by the power of Your Holy Spirit. I need the strength that only You can give me so that I can look past now to then. My ultimate goal is not just to make it through, but to honor You in the process. Fill me now, Lord, and enable me to endure. Amen.