Long Suffering – The 4th Fruit of the Holy Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22).

One of the main definitions of the word long-suffering refers to patience. Also, patience is another quality that very much needed in the fast-moving world in which we live now.

Try watching people stand in line at the grocery store or fast-food restaurant. Road rage is still a problem on some highways. Many people are killed or injured only because of anger over something trivial.

In our fast-paced society, many people shorten their axes, so very little to smooth them out. As a result, many people have little patience operating in their personalities.

For Christians, this is a significant dilemma. One way of God is that He is a God who is very patient and long-suffering. His method is not our style. One of the things that you will find early about His purposes is that He works in a dimension that we don’t understand, and you must learn to adjust to His styles of solving problems – you will find yourself quickly losing your temper and how He wants to solve problems in your life.

God operates on a time frame that we don’t understand as we operate in a fast-moving world in which we live. You must work with the Holy Spirit on this unique quality to make it work well into your soul. The reason for this is that your impatience will begin to act and try to put aside long-suffering so that the Holy Spirit will work and transmit it to you. Sometimes, it becomes a battle of wills – your will is against His will.

However, once the Holy Spirit begins to try and manifest these qualities into your personality, you must move and let them work in your mind and emotions. If you do, His patience will begin to put aside your impatience, and before you realize it, your fuse will start to elongate, and you will not lose patience like you usually do.

Here are the different definitions of the word long-suffering:

• Forbearance, patience
• Patient endurance and steadfastness under provocation
• Patient under bad intentions, without thinking about retaliation
• Patience, endurance, fortitude and patience
• Patient under suffering and perseverance in the face of adversity
• Ability to endure mistreatment and ill-treatment

By the way, all of these definitions say, you see why we all need the patience and long-suffering of the Holy Spirit to start operating in our souls and personalities – especially when we are forced to face difficulties. Sometimes the patience and long-suffering from the Holy Spirit are the only things that will give you the ability to endure through a furious storm or trial.

Learn to ascend and flow with the patience of the Holy Spirit in your daily life and walk with God – and you will be able to enter a much calmer and more peaceful state in your mind and emotions.