Patience is not a natural tendency. None of us does it well without practice and a whole lot of motivation. More now than in decades past, we live in an instant gratification world. We want what we want, and we want it now. And for the most part, we get it now. Compared to even 100 years ago, the amount of patience we’re asked to have has drastically dwindled. 

If you’ve ever had to wait for something you really wanted, you understand the anxiety and impatience that often accompanies waiting. Or if you’re a parent, you certainly understand the frustration that comes when the thing you are working toward is slow in arriving. It’s easy to get irritated, irritable, and frustrated in the waiting. And if we aren’t careful, the patience we’ve been striving for will be completely obliterated by those things. 

And when we are angsty, irritated, and frustrated, we often find that other things rub us the wrong way as well. When we are eagerly waiting for something, that annoyance that you usually let roll off your back all the sudden feels overwhelming. We can be snappy and irritable with others. We can see issues where none exist.  

In contrast, when we are patient, we can defeat the frustration and angst that accompanies waiting. We can find peace. But, like we said earlier, patience is not natural. So, how do we get from irritated to peace, from impatient to patient?  

I think there are a few key elements that make real, God-honoring patience possible. First is recognizing who God is and that He is in control. When we stop trying to manipulate and force the outcome, and just rest in the goodness of God and the truth that His timing is perfect, we can start to embrace patience. When He’s in the driver’s seat of our lives, we can trust that we will get there when we get there… not a minute too soon or too late.  

Next is knowing your why. If you don’t know why it’s worth waiting, you will never do it. But when we wait on the Lord and His timing, we always have the best “why” because it means we are waiting on God’s best.  

And finally, keep your eyes on eternity. When we view our life and our circumstances in light of a heavenly kingdom instead of what is right in front of us, it helps us to see what is worth waiting for and what is not. We can let go of silly, fleeting things to focus in on the things that are worth having patience. See, we get so distracted by so many things. Our eyes flit from one shiny thing to another all the while stealing us of any hope of developing patience. But when we bring everything under the banner of Heaven, we start to see what the point really is. And we can start to hone and practice patience, developing this God-given strength and fruit of the Holy Spirit.