A mentor of mine tells a story about a particular instance years ago. He was a pastor in Chicago and, like most pastors, had a week filled with meetings and visitations to the degree that Saturday had come with the Sunday morning's sermon still unfinished. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the sermon was barely started.
To remedy the situation, he locked himself in his church office for a couple of hours. Yet despite his intentionality, he was distracted and struggling to stay focused. Fed up with his lack of progress, my mentor went for a walk around the neighborhood to clear his head. When he got back to the church, he went into his office, knelt down before his desk, and prayed: "Lord, please grant me the patience to do what I need to. Lord, help me be patient. Amen."
Just as he finished his prayer, there was a knock at his office door. He went to the door and opened it to find the exact person needed for the job of distracting the pastor from writing his sermon. Over the next two hours, the visitor chatted my mentor's ear off. The whole time, my mentor was planning his escape and trying all the while to send his time-consuming visitor on his way.
Finally, the visitor leaves and my mentor is left alone, no closer to completing his sermon than he had been hours before. Dejected at his progress, he sat down in his desk chair, trying to sink as far into the leather upholstery as he could. It was now nearly dinner time and he still no sermon for his effort so he simply closed his eyes and breathed. At this moment, he realized what just happened.
He had prayed for patience, expecting for God to instantly transform him into a man of patience. Instead, God sent to him the very person to exercise his patience. The visitor was the very thing God used to test and grow his patience. My mentor understood this as a revelation from God, checked and confirmed it with Scripture, and the sermon was written in under an hour.
Patience is a tricky thing. It is kind of like filling a bathtub as full as it can go but instead of pulling the drain plug, you keep the faucet on while the water flows over the side of the tub and pools into puddles on the tiled bathroom floor. Being patient requires something or someone for us to be patient of. For instance, you need patience when dealing with a long business deal, when handling difficult people or situations, and when overcoming illnesses. Understanding that patience is how God would have us deal with difficult situations is key to recognizing when patience is needed and when we need to pray for God to help us.
Paul includes patience in his list of fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). This is an important distinction for two reasons. The first is that the Spirit is the source of patience, and as such when we need patience, what we really need is the Holy Spirit. This equates to prayer and devotion. Secondly, fruit is different than a gift in that gifts are given ready for usage whereas fruits need to be grown over time. Because of this, when we pray for patience, like my mentor, we should not be surprised when we suddenly find ourselves being tested. Let us then seek after God to grow our patience just as He provides opportunities to be patient!
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