Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

I want to be completely honest with you; I struggle with running out of patience sometimes. Why is it that patience disappears when we are late for an appointment, or when we are caught in Christmas shopping traffic? Where does patience go when we rush to the “15 items or less” line at the store, only to find someone in front of us with 19 items!

I feel that when I am being forced to wait, it only intensifies the stress in my day and causes my fuse to be shortened. When this happens, I not only fail to be patient, but I prevent God’s Spirit from working in my life.

Patience is not just a virtue, but according to Galatians 5, it is a fruit of the Spirit. This means that when we lose our patience, we reveal the sour fruit of our hearts rather than representing Jesus and His goodness. Since He is a patient God, our loss of patience causes us to miss the opportunity to show the love of God to the world around us.

When we display impatience, it only demonstrates that we are more concerned with our own agendas than the needs and struggles of others around us. So, let’s all take a deep breath, and turn our focus away from ourselves. Even in the stressful times, we can look and see that others around us are important too. We have never laid eyes on anyone that God loves less than He loves us. We are all special to Him, and patience gives us the privilege of sharing the fruit of His Spirit with others around us.