DAY 45 – WAITING FOR PENTECOST

…AND WAITING

Galatians 5:22-23

The Bible lists the qualities that the Holy Spirit grows in us when we are under His tutelage: 

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Those are nine specific hallmarks that identify Christian behavior. 

Of all of those attributes love and patience are probably the least understood.  The love referred to is not the warm, fuzzy emotional kind of love.  It is a love that demonstrates care in spite of emotion, and reflects the ethic of commitment.  It is doing the right thing whether I feel like it or not.  Love as action – not love as feeling. 

And patience.  We often think patience is just being willing to wait when you want a faster response or resolution – but it is deeper than that.  It is patient forbearance.  It is putting up with.  It is endurance, not giving up.  It is waiting for God’s timing in the weighty matters of life.  It demonstrates our trust and acceptance of His divine plan.   And, like all of the other ‘Fruits’ listed we can’t achieve it without the Holy Spirit’s help. 

I was relieved when I learned that the kind of patience so often assumed was not the same as the patience listed in the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’….  If we assume it is normal ‘patience’ we just set ourselves up for perpetual consternation.  In reality, sometimes that sort of patience is not practical.  There are times when ‘waiting’ is not appropriate, and situations where courteous impatience is warranted.   (However, dealing with whatever the issue is in a positive way and exercising kindness reflects Christian character.)

The Holy Spirit is our Comforter – but also our teacher, and He will lead us into Righteousness in our behaviors if we let Him!