The Pace of Faithful Patience
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:25 (NASB)
Patience grows where it is given space to stretch out and root deep. In the testing, we find what is really inside of us in the moments that we haven’t prepared for. I admit, I am the person at the grocery store who often scans the check-out aisles like a hawk, trying to determine the shortest and fastest check out line. A number of times I have jumped in a line to then move over to another line that looks like it will move faster. Inevitably, the person in front of me has to do a return or had more in their cart than I initially thought, and I would most likely have been out of the store sooner if I had just remained in my original line. Sometimes, in the quest for expediency, I pause my patience.
Cultivating Long Lasting Fruit
Patience is not just for the moments of inconvenience when we feel in a hurry. It is the cultivation of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives that enables us to respond in love to the people around us, especially when we are not moving at the same pace. Whether we are waiting on a toddler to “let me do it myself,” engaging with the coworker we think is doing something altogether wrong and in a most inefficient way, walking with the new brother or sister who has come to know Jesus, or caring for those later in years who have been independent most of their lives until now, patience is a gift and a muscle we never cease working out.
The temptation to give up before the major breakthrough or the completion of something has a strong draw for the weary man or woman. Alongside engaging in patience, remaining faithful in any season or situation is an invitation to us to look up and look out rather than retreat. When considering people regarded as faithful for the long haul, the entire cast of Hebrews 11 comes to mind as well as the prophets who longed and prayed for the repentance of their brothers and sisters.
All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.
Hebrews 11:39-40 (NLT)
Their good reputation came as a result of a consistently faithful walk and enduring patience in the circumstances surrounding their lives that did not change as rapidly as maybe they hoped in the moment. Their fruit of faithfulness pointed to the greater reality they saw beyond their physical eyes, and the delight of faithfulness for them was in knowing the Father’s faithfulness toward them. Even when they stumbled and struggled, these men and women persevered in the same direction of walking towards the Father. Peter echoed these same thoughts that so many before must have also known: “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life.” – John 6:68b (CSB)
Look Up, Look Out
I’d like to invite you for a moment to imagine what a pace of faithful patience might look like in your own life. Most often, these moments might be a string of mundane events that create a well-worn path through the mountaintops and the valleys. Look upward at the Father for what he has in store for us, and look outward as we wait patiently on both God and the people he calls us to work alongside.
It may not be glamorous or make the front page of the newspaper, but it tells a story of what matters most to each of us. I’d like to invite you to imagine the way that Jesus walked and talked on a daily basis, how he never seemed to be in a hurry and would even pull away from everyone to spend time with the Father. What many may have considered a “waste of time” was Jesus being completely faithful and patient in all that He did. How might his disciples have felt about his pace? What about the Pharisees? What about the people he slowed down to interact with, the ones that he healed?
pisteuō- faith- to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in
makrothymeō- patient- to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart
1. to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles
2. to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others
To pull from the Greek definitions, walking with faithful patience could mean that we can be trusted by the Father to remain and not lose heart as we wait on Him to accomplish all that He said He would do, regardless of what circumstances may try to dictate. We are a people with settled hearts, unhurried by the roar of activity around us, because we know our Father. Our eyes first look to Him for understanding and wisdom, and then they look out at the people He puts in our path. We can be trusted with whatever circumstances we are given by God because we are willing to sit in the tension of the now and not yet, trusting that He will complete the good work He began.
Walking in Step With the Spirit
In the fast-paced world that we live and move in, what would it look like to be a people who set our pace according to walking in step with the Spirit and waiting on God? As we are faithful in the waiting, we exhibit to the people around us a beautiful facet of God’s character. The Father is never in a hurry. Patience is a gift in the upside-down kingdom of God. The quiet, slower, faithful path presents beautiful opportunities to bear witness to the goodness of God as we look up and to remain patient as we look out. We trust that the challenges we face each day will give way to the Father’s hands as He shapes us and the world around us with compassion and love. Our pace is unhurried because we walk with the Spirit.
As you serve in each area that the Father has called you to engage in, you are invited to slow your pace to walk with Him in His love and to trust all of His words are true. In the places that you feel the stretching and tension of not seeing the provision yet, you are invited to walk in pace with faithfulness and patience, not as a punishment, but as a testament to the world of the faithfulness of our God. In the midst of conflict and disagreement, we are growing up as ones that are faithful with the love we give and patient with our brother or sister that sits across from us.
May the pace of the Father bring you overwhelming peace as you patiently wait on him and remain faithful to the One who is forever faithful to you.
Resource:
Take a look at Galatians 5 today, considering the focus and pace and rhythm of the kingdom of God versus the pace and rhythms of the kingdom of man. What does it look like to live from a kingdom perspective that brings forth the good fruit at the end of the chapter?
Post written by Amanda Eubanks, Wildfire administrative assistant