The Fruit of Patience
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November 15, 2015 |
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 Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23).
In many cases whether people experience happiness or not depends on whether they can be patient or not. Also, the result of one's studies, work, or business can vary greatly depending on a person's patience. It's the same in spiritual matters. When we want to receive an answer from God, the fruit will be different depending on our patience. Let's delve into this fruit of patience.
1. The fruit of patience without need of the word 'patience'
The patience that is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is patience in everything. This patience is a level higher than the patience in spiritual love written about in 1 Corinthians 13.
Spiritual patience is not enduring with evil but enduring with goodness. In fact, if you cultivate spiritual patience in your heart, then you don't have to try to be patient. You will have a broader heart.
For example, when a newborn baby has high fever, the mother will suffer taking care of the baby. She may stay up all night or not be able to eat, but she doesn't have any time to think about herself. She focuses only on how she can make her baby more comfortable. And when the baby's fever goes down a little, she will just become so happy, still without thinking about her own sufferings.
Spiritual patience is somewhat similar to this. There might be hardships until you achieve your goal, whether it is a personal goal, or for your sanctification, or for the glory of God. You can wait with faith and love because you are looking forward to the fruit of it with hope. This is spiritual patience. With this fruit, you won't need to try to keep patient, you can remain calm without any kind of circumstances being able to agitate you.
2. Three kinds of spiritual patience
First, we need patience to reform the heart
The more evil we have in heart, the more difficult it is to be patient. Luke 8:15 reads, "But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance."
We need endurance and efforts to change our hearts into the heart of good soil. To become sanctified, we have to make ourselves obedient to the truth by praying fervently with fasting and with all our heart. We have to quit what we used to love, and if something is not spiritually beneficial, we have to cast it away.
We must not stop in the middle or just quit trying after trying to do it for a short period of time. Until we reap the fruit of sanctification completely, we have to do our best with self-control and act by the Word. Just as we have to work to pull out a weed at its root to remove the weed completely, we have to pray and change our hearts until we pull the sinful nature out at the root.
Some may think they have already cast off something through prayer, but they find it again in their hearts. Then some become discouraged by it. You may find forms of untruth in you until you pull out the original root of the sinful nature, but it doesn't mean you haven't made any spiritual progress. When you peel an onion, you can see the same kind of layers come again and again. But if you keep on peeling, the onion will finally disappear. The same principle applies to sinful natures.
You must not get discouraged just because you didn't cast it away yet. You have to have patience until the end and continue to try harder with hope for your renewal. Even if there isn't any visible fruit being borne through you, if you keep acting in goodness and truth, you will not become weary.
When you circumcise your heart with faith in this way, your soul will prosper, all things go well with you, and you will be healthy.
Secondly, we need patience for others
When you have interaction with people who have different personalities and education, you may be faced with some discomfort. Beginning with trivial matters to serious matters, you may have different thoughts with them and peace might be broken as well.
But those who long for sanctification may consider others as God's precious children. They try to accommodate others no matter what the situation and the kind of person it is. In this way they can establish and maintain peace. They always understand others with a good heart and endure while seeking the benefit of others. Even when others act with evil, they just bear with them. They pay back this evil only with goodness, not with evil.
We also have to be patient when we evangelize or counsel people, or when we train church workers to carry out the work of the kingdom of God. Some are slow in being renewed though they have learned the truth for a long time and befriend the world. We should pray for them with tears and mourning and endure for them. If you sow the seed of patience in this way, you will certainly gain the fruit according to the justice of God.
If you endured with some souls until they change while praying for them with tears, you will have the broad heart to harbor all of them. So, you will gain the authority and power to revive many souls. Also, if you control your heart and sow the seed of endurance even in the face of false accusations, God will let you reap the fruit of blessings.
Thirdly, we need the patience in your relation with God
When you pray and ask something of God, you need patience to receive the answer. Mark 11:24 reads, "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you."
There are many other promises in the Bible that God will answer His children's prayers. But in many cases people don't receive their answers because they are not patient enough.
People may ask for an immediate response, but God may not answer them immediately. God answers them at the most appropriate and opportune time because He knows everything.
If the subject of their prayer request is something big and important, God can answer them only when the amount of prayer is filled. Farmers also have to be patient when they farm. They can harvest some crops after several weeks or months, but for some others it takes a year or even several years to harvest the crop.
If we have the faith to really receive the answer, we have to pray and act with faith until we actually receive the answer as the fruit. Also, when we go through some refining trials of the heart or persecutions in our Christian lives, we can bear good fruits when we have patience.
Joseph was sold into Egypt as a slave at the age of 17. Although he worked diligently, he was wrongfully accused and went to jail. He always trusted God who was watching him and he firmly believed in the love of God who gives the best at the right time. God blessed Joseph to become the second ruler of Egypt after the Pharaoh.
I exhort you to win the victory thinking of the heavenly rewards doing God's work, even if you face hardships without apparent reason (James 1:2-4). That patience will increase your faith and broaden and deepen your heart to make it more mature. You will experience the blessings and answers of God that He promised if you completely accomplish patience (Hebrews 10:36).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God waits a thousand years like a day to gain true children and He bore with the pain of giving His only begotten Son for us. Jesus also endured the suffering of the cross, and the Holy Spirit also bears with inexpressible groanings during the time of human cultivation. I urge you to cultivate complete patience remembering this love of God.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will have fruits of blessings in your heavenly houses as well as enjoy the true joy of harvest from time to time on this earth (Psalm 126:5-6).
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