Faith is defined as:
-complete trust or confidence in someone or something,
-strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

 

Patience is defined as:

-the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

 

We often talk about faith. How much we have, how much we don’t have, how much we need. We wear it on our t-shirts and have huge discussions about it. However, how often do we allow patience to be part of the conversation when we discuss faith? Sometimes you can have faith in something but when you don’t have patience, it can lead to a plethora of actions which can then lead to a plethora of outcomes and consequences.

If we look at the definitions of faith and patience, faith deals with our belief in something or our hope that this thing or things will come to past. A strong belief in the power of a particular thing. Patience deals with our ability to wait without losing our temper or becoming irritable while we wait. It deals with tolerance. If we look at the pure definitions of what faith and patience are, it becomes a lot clearer how the two interact. 

If you have faith in a thing, you must also have the patience to wait regardless of what happens or doesn’t happen while you are waiting for this thing to come to past. We often criticize ourselves and feel downtrodden when we look at our faith and start to compare it to the faith of others that we see or know. We say, “If only I can have faith like that.” Side note: Let’s get a few things straight. First, faith is not a cookie-cutter thing. It is not “one size fits all”. The worst thing you can do is try to “faith-it” like someone else does. Your story is not their story, your calling is not their calling, and your purpose is not their purpose, so your faith is not going to be exactly like their faith. It is okay to admire the faith of others and let it motivate you to have more faith or stick to your faith but don’t fall into the trap of trying to "faith-it" like they do because it can sometimes become discouraging when you still feel like you are far away from where they are.

You have to realize that it may not be your faith that is the problem, it may be your level of patience. We live in an era where everything is fast. You no longer have to go to the bank to cash a check, go to the store to shop, order take-out over the phone, go to the car lot to buy a car or even go into an office to see the doctor. Everything is now “fast.” It is almost like instant delivery. And because our mindsets are stuck on the speed of things, anything that speaks against the fast lifestyle that we have adapted to becomes an annoyance. Therefore, leading to situations in which when we are “faithing” for something, we cannot and do not want to wait. The truth of the matter is while we wait, we don’t want to deal with the suffering, the lack, the inconvenience, or the delay that comes along with “the wait”.

If you ask God for a house, you don’t want to lose your car in the process. If you ask God for a new job you don’t want to incur bills that are going to cause you to have to stay at your current job to save enough money before you can take the big leap into the job that you want. If you ask God to fix your relationship you don’t want to experience more relationship drama while you wait. It is our patience that can sometimes destroy our faith. It is our patience that really causes us to throw in the towel. It is lack of patience that makes everything seem like it is taking too long. Have you ever realized that when you are impatient in line the person in front of you has more issues. And when you leave that line to go to another line the register stops working. Your patience caused you to move from where you were only to wind up in a worse situation. Patience can be a deflator to faith. Especially, depending on what we are asking for and how fast we need it.

When the mortgage is due or the lights are about to be cut off you are not trying to “wait on God” because you at this point think God is crazy because He knows you’re about to be kicked out of your house or be left in the dark. But God is looking down on you knowing that you are the crazy one. He already has the solution. All you have is the problem and stress.

When we have faith in something we have to be willing to exercise the patience needed to see it through. We have to be willing to not be distracted by what happens while we wait. It’s almost like having to ignore the annoying mosquito. Especially after it stings. You are almost going to do everything you can to keep from being stung again. Patience takes extreme focus and tolerance which we don’t naturally have.

Proverbs 16:32 states it is “better to be patient than a warrior, and better to have self-control than to capture a city.” Patience is greater than even our own physical strength. It is greater than anything we can own. So why do we find ourselves having less and less of it? To a certain degree we may sometimes feel like if we don’t get it now then it won’t ever happen. It can also be our need for control. We want to dictate what our next move is going to be because we know that sometimes God takes us in a direction that feels unsure and uncomfortable. We feel like if we can control it then we can control the outcome. We don’t realize that we will never be in full control. Even a person who lives life on the edge and lives it based on their own desires at some point experiences the unexpected. Their life only appears to be great because they don’t have the conviction or the concern to care.

If we don’t learn to foster greater levels of patience, we are going to continue to struggle with our faith in turn struggling in our relationship with God. We lose our trust in God and turn our backs on Him because we feel like His delay means no. When in actuality, His delay means let me work it out so when I give it to you it is at the right time, in the right place, amongst the right people, for the right person, in the right season. You must make a choice and decide if having it now is more important than having it by the way of God’s standards. Examine what it is that is causing you to struggle with your faith. Are you allowing time to cause you to lose your patience?  Look back at the times when you lost your faith, where was your patience? Patience is pivotal to our ability to remain faithful. It is not the only factor, but it is a key factor.