But the fruit of the Spirit is patience. Galatians 5:22-23

As the saying goes, “be careful when you pray for patience; God just might answer it.” or how about the prayer, “I want patience and I want it now!”

We’re in so much of a rush nowadays, aren’t we? On the roads. In line at the store. In a restaurant. We get very impatient when we feel like our time is being wasted. And we’re all guilty of it.

Noah built a large boat and warned people for 120 years that it was going to rain. Moses spent 40 years in the desert. Jacob worked for 14 years to take Rachel as his wife. Joseph spent two years in a nasty Egyptian prison. All were patient men of God. They could have clearly done something more “constructive” during that time, but God had other plans for them.

God is patient. We know that. We need to ask Him to show us how to be patient. Then perhaps we won’t get upset if our food is a little slow in arriving, other people can pass us on the highway because their meeting is more important that ours, and we can relax and bring a smile to the painfully slow clerk who might be having the worst day of her life.

Then it might actually dawn on us that it really isn’t about us.