As we have addressed, impatience is not a fruit of the Spirit. So, if we are led by impatience, we will not be led by His Spirit, and likely not be in His will.

Recently, the Lord showed me how much I had missed Him throughout my life, and how many unnecessary troubles I had experienced because of my impatience. I was shown the miracles I missed, the divine connections I missed, and how much more fruitful I could have been had I not been impatient.

I received this evaluation because I asked for it. Since we are instructed to judge ourselves, lest we be judged (see I Corinthians 11:31), I asked the Lord to evaluate my work for Him, and He did. We are told in Romans 12:2 there is a good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. After this evaluation, I estimated I had been in His “perfect will” less than 20 percent of the time. The rest was just “good” or “acceptable,” but not His highest and best, and impatience was the main reason I had been distracted from His highest purposes.

Since this experience, seeking to recognize and embrace every opportunity to grow in patience has become a primary focus of my life. I know love is the greatest, but I was shown how often my impatience had kept me from loving people. I know this is elementary and embarrassing that it has taken me fifty years of following Him to learn this. I share this with you, so you won’t take so long!

 God gives His grace to the humble and I need all the grace I can get. I will gladly risk embarrassment and share my flaws if it will help others avoid the mistakes I have made. I want to finish, having turned this present equation around. I want to finish 100 percent doing His perfect will, and that cannot happen without His grace. In fact, He told me that being in His perfect will 20 percent of the time was high and even rare among those who follow Him. He is the Truth, and always speaks the truth, so I know this is true, but it ought not to be so. He deserves better from His people.

When I saw how big this sin of impatience was in my life, I begged the Lord to help me, and He has. Of course, in my impatience, I wanted Him to immediately impart His patience to me, but that is not how He works. Now my life is so filled with tests of patience, I warn people not to ride in the car with me because there will almost certainly be delays. A ten-minute drive to the store will almost certainly be twenty minutes or more for any number of reasons.

I recently went to a restaurant between regular meal hours, so it would not be so crowded, and I could expect quick service. I was right. There were only a few people, but it was as if I had become invisible to the waiters! I watched several come in, get served, eat, and leave before anyone even came to take my order! Since I now expect this sort of thing, I am determined to make good use of the time and even leave the waiter a big tip. Better to have peace than frustration and missed opportunities to minister to others, as in the past.

Now if you want to book the same flight as me, you have been warned, and it will almost certainly be delayed, if not canceled. However, this does not have to ruin our day. Instead, we can have the great experience of watching how the Lord uses this time. Even if nothing spectacular happens, we are still growing in the fruit of the Spirit called “patience,” which is worth far more than any earthly treasure by helping us inherit the promises.

What’s interesting is, I always considered myself a patient person compared to others, which the Scripture says, only those without understanding do (see II Corinthians 10:12). I do know I experience the Lord far more every day now since I have been under this discipline, and that is worth the wait many times over. I cannot change the past, but I can change my future by living more in the present, which being patient has certainly helped me to do. I pray this helps you as well.

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