Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
[bctt tweet=”The things God offers us are worth the wait..”]
We are in the third week of looking a the fruits of the spirit as defined in Galatians. The first week, we studied the fruit of love, the foundation for all the other fruits. Last week, we talked about Joy and Peace and how those fruits differed from the worldly view. Today, we will look at the fruits of forbearance and faithfulness. These are out of order from the scripture because kindness and goodness go together so well in a discussion.
Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
When I started researching the fruits, and I came across forbearance, I had to stop and ask myself, what the heck is it. Google defines forbearance as “patient self-control; restraint and tolerance.” Since self-control is another fruit, we will use the definition of patience for this fruit. And when we have patience, something I lack, we move through life with restraint and tolerance.
Isaiah 11:5 “Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.”
As Christians, we are called to bear the fruit of patience. So what will that look like in our daily lives? Tolerance means we wait on the Lord to move before us. Waiting on the Lord feels counter-intuitive to our culture today, a society that wants everything now. Our hearts have learned that what God offers us is worth the wait. Patience also teaches us to put up with difficult circumstances and difficult people. We endure trials for the sack of Christ because He bore the cross for us. We love the unlovable because Christ loved us and everyone is a child of God. God is patient with us so we model this back to the world so that no one may perish, but each may receive eternal life.
[bctt tweet=”God faithfully gives us His strength to endure all things.”]
Faithfulness means more than just our faith in God. This fruit also says we are called to be reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on us to be available to help or to listen. We are faithful to follow God and the nudging of the Holy Spirit to do what is right and even to suffer because of Christ. And, even when our faith gets tested in the world, we stand firm because God faithfully gives us His strength to endure all things.
[bctt tweet=”Our job is to cultivate the soil so these fruits can grow freely in our lives.”]
Together, the fruits of patience and faithfulness allow the world to see Christ in us. Both of these traits are in short supply in our communities. In a fast-paced world, we don’t want to wait. And we see the message of the world calling us to do everything for ourselves, trusting no one. These fruits stand as beacons to draw the lost back to Christ. The apostle Paul uses these examples of fruits of the spirit to teach us and grow us to be more Christ-like in hopes to draw more people to God. Our job is to cultivate the soil so these fruits can grow freely in our lives. “Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.” (Romans 7:5-6)
Blessings,
Yvonne – #blogger, #speaker, and #author
Matthew 28:19 “Therefore, GO and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
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Hello Yvonne – Thank you for these great words. Annoyingly while I adore and aspire to many of the great principles and attributes of our Faith patience is one I struggle with more than most.
You are so right when you say “Waiting on the Lord feels counter-intuitive to our culture today, a society that wants everything now.” In fact with my coaching of Bosses and Sales Teams I proudly dispense the wisdom that “Waiting is not a next action”
Waiting on God’s timing – no there is a thing. Please pray for me (and for a few others I guess) Your blog is a sound nudge of the Spirit = thank you
I will be praying for you and each of us. It is the fruit I struggle with also. I want to run ahead of our Lord and try to make it work out by my power instead on waiting for Him. He is so gracious to us even when we fail (daily).
Hi, Yvonne!
What a great series!
You are so right… patience and faithfulness is something in short supply in our fast-paced society, but God does not speed up His timing on account of our lack of patience.
Blessings to you!
Thanks Patricia. Thanks for visiting and commenting. Patience is extra tough for me but I am learning. God bless.
Doing word studies really helps, often we think we know what it means and ead over it. And yes, we should be good ground.
Thanks for visiting and commenting
Hi Yvonne. Patience is something I try to think about every day. I have been known to fly off the handle, but hopefully those days are behind me. I like this: “Our job is to cultivate the soil so these fruits can grow freely in our lives.” It is truly the Holy Spirit who worksHis patience in our soil. Thank you for this post.
Thanks for visiting and commenting Stephen. I hope God grows an abundance of patience in you.
Oh, I definitely need to grow in the fruit of “patience.” That is a life-long lesson for me, I think. It seems God is always putting me in situations that feels specifically designed for me to grow in patience. I am not good at it, and I wonder if the reason why I kept getting situations in my path that test my patience is because that fruit in my life is very underdeveloped. So, God help me to grow in that fruit! I can’t wait – ha ha ha. Bless you, Lisa Q
Amazing how many of us need to grow more patience
Wonderful post, Yvonne! This series is a much needed reminder to keep myself grounded in the truth of what God’s Spirit should look like as it grows in me. From my perspective, patience and faithfulness are quiet but powerful. I like the way you connected these two spiritual qualities because they do seem to go hand-in-hand. Being faithful to the Lord always includes waiting and believing when things are not going as we planned. Patience will always be required in this mix. I appreciate the encouragement “God faithfully gives us His strength to endure all things.” What a beautiful truth! Bless you!
Thank you Melissa. I appreciate you thoughts and it is so important to stay in these truths. God bless.
These gifts ARE in short supply! This – “Together, the fruits of patience and faithfulness allow the world to see Christ in us.” We often think that good Bible teaching, skilled preaching, or gifted musical performance are what allow the world to see Christ in us. But, instead, it’s these simple actions that we may feel are unseen, unimportant, and unwitnessed. No one notices patience, except the one to which it is granted. No one notices faithfulness except the one impacted by it who happens to be observing. But God sees. And he reaches out to each one through these simple actions. The one impacted sees a glimmer of God’s kindness and faithfulness through OUR display of quiet patience and faithfulness, and a heart is quickened, made pliable and welcoming to the Spirit. These gifts are far more significant than we are ever aware. These impact hearts and lives.
Thanks Melinda, you are so correct. I appreciate you visiting and commenting
Yvonne,
This post resonated with me. It’s been said and we know it to be true…our culture is impatient and it spills over into the church. With the invention of devices, fast-food, microwaves, and so on, it’s no wonder we have developed an atmosphere of not wanting to wait on anything! Including God! So I love how you said the things God offers us are worth the wait. Because when we run ahead of God, it rarely turns out well.
And oh, how I want to be known as a faithful person. May the Lord grow both these fruits in me through the strength of Christ.
Amen Karen, I need these too. I really appreciate your thoughts and for visiting. God bless
“God faithfully gives us His strength to endure all things.”
This is a great takeaway from this post. God bears fruit in our lives so we can be a first fruits in feeding the world. The Spirit is at work actively changing us. When people ask for proof, they should examine the changed heart of someone they know.
Keep bearing fruit for the Kingdom!
Thanks so much for commenting. I love your words, “God bears fruit in our lives so we can be the first fruit in feeding the world.” So true and so poetic.
Amen! Thank you Yvonne! I have enjoyed your words about Fruitfulness. It is such an important topic to be looking at.
welcome
Thank you
Patience…part of me wishes I had never prayed for this. I truly think it is the hardest “fruit” to develop. My young kids “help” on a regular basis though.
Thanks Nicole. I know what you mean.