Just Wait! (longsuffering)
Fruit of the Spirit Series
“Just Wait!
(Longsuffering)
Galatians 5:22
 
This first grade teacher and her class of thirty-two first graders, had watched it rain all day long.  The last bell had rung, it was time to go home, and this teacher began putting galoshes on all thirty-two of those first graders. 
 
She came to the last little girl and she was so excited that she was about finished with this dirty chore, and she began to put the galoshes on this little girl, and they were unusually tight.  She struggled, she strained, she pulled, she tugged, she grunted, she groaned, and finally got the galoshes on that last little girl.  Just as she finished snapping them into place, the little girl said: “You know what teacher?  These aren’t my galoshes.”
 
The teacher couldn’t believe it. She struggled, she strained, she pulled, she tugged, she grunted, she groaned, until glistening with sweat, she finally yanked the galoshes off those little girl’s feet. Just at the moment she finally snapped them off, the little girl looked up at her and said:  “They’re my
sisters and she lets me wear them.”
 
Now what that woman needed is something that we all need, a virtue which is sorely lacking in our society today, which is what the Bible calls “longsuffering” and we call “patience.”
 
Now I will be the first one to admit, if nobody else will, I need patience.  I tell the Lord all the time:  “Lord, I want patience, and I want it right now!” How many of you have a problem with patience? 
 
I need to be more like the little boy I heard about who was in a department store.  He was at the end of an escalator and he kept watching the railing as it went around.  A salesman came up and said, “Son, are you lost?” He said, “No, I’m just waiting for my chewing gum to come back.   
 
Now we are told that the Fruit of the Spirit is “longsuffering.” (Gal. 5:22) many modern translations use the word patience here.  As you are going to see, longsuffering is patience, but it is more than patience. 
 
Let me give you my definition of long-suffering.  Longsuffering is the determination to live by faith and not by feeling, and to respond with grace rather than to react with grief, regardless of the circumstances.  Now the apostle James tells us in a wonderful passage of scripture, that longsuffering will be manifested in three ways in our lives.
 
1. A Patience with Difficult People
 
James 5:7-8
 
The word patient is the same word used for longsuffering in Galatians 5:22. James illustrates patience with the picture of a farmer. 
 
A farmer plants, weeds, waters, cultivates.  Every day he does two things:  he watches and he waits. 
 
He knows you cannot hurry the harvest, but he also knows that the harvest will come in due time.
 
Now what is true of plants is also true of people.  That is why he says in verse 9, “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned.  Behold, the judge is standing at the door!”  Many of us have seen the bumper sticker that says:  “Please be patient with me, God is not finished with me yet.” Well, what is true of us is also true of others.
 
Now the word for patience or longsuffering is a combination of two Greek words:  the word macro which means “long or slow” and the word thumia from which we get the word thermos or thermal, which means “anger.” It literally means to be long-tempered as opposed to being short- tempered.  In other words, patience is the ability to be slow to anger, rather than being quick-tempered.  God is this way.  Ps. 103:8 says:  “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.”
 
Someone has said that “patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.” Now please understand that patience is not passivity.   It is not indifference.  It is not that fatalistic attitude toward life which sits back, twiddles its thumbs, and simply says: “Whatever will be, will be.”
 
Patience does not mean that you never get angry.  Because anger is not always wrong.  Sometimes a lack of anger is wrong.  Patience simply means you are slow to anger, and quick to get rid of it.  Too often we are just the opposite. 
 
We are quick to be angry, slow to get rid of it, and that is when the acid of anger turns into the burden of bitterness.  Then we either hold grudges or try to get even.
 
You know, sometimes we look like we are being patient when we’re really not.  I read a story one time about some American soldiers during the Korean War who had rented a house and hired a local boy to do their housekeeping and cooking.
 
This little Korean fellow they hired had an unbelievably positive attitude.  He was always smiling and jovial and happy.  So they played one trick after another on him.  They nailed his shoes to the floor.  He would just get up in the morning, pull those nails out with pliers, slip on the shoes, and keep on smiling.
 
They put grease on the stove handles.  He would just wipe each one off and keep smiling and keep singing all the way. 
 
They balanced buckets over the door.  When he would open the door he would get drenched.  He would just simply dry off and never fuss and just keep on smiling.
 
Finally, they became so ashamed of themselves that they called him in one day and they said:  “we want you to know that we are never going to trick you again.  We really do appreciate your patience.”
 
He asked, “You mean no more nail shoes to floor?”
 
“No more.”
 
“You mean no more sticky on stove knobs?”
 
“No more.”
 
“You mean no more water buckets on door?”
 
“No more.”
 
He said, “Okay then, no more spit in soup.”
 
Now the fact of the matter is you cannot get away from people in your life that try your patience.  As a matter of fact, I have learned this lesson:  the people you love the most will try your patience the worst.  Now if you have been married more than three days, you know that that is true.  I don’t care how peaceful a marriage can look on the outside; there is always room for impatience on the inside. 
 
I heard about one couple who had such a peaceful marriage that it was talked about all over town.  When they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, a newspaper reporter came out and asked them what the secret of their domestic tranquility was. 
 
The wife said, “Well, it dates back to our honeymoon when we took a pack-mule trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  Shortly after we started down, my husband’s mule stumbled and Joe took him by the ears, shook him vigorously, and said, 'That’s once.’  We continued a bit farther and the mule stumbled again.  My husband took him by the ears, shook him even more vigorously, and said, 'That’s twice.”
 
We had hardly gone half a mile when the mule stumbled a third time. 
Immediately, my husband pulled a revolver from his pocket and shot him right between the eyes.  When I began to protest this cruel and insensitive treatment of that animal, he grabbed me by the ears, shook me vigorously and said, 'That’s once.’
 
Now the truth is, the only way to learn to be patient with difficult people is to love them.  Paul said in I Cor. 13:4, “love suffers long.” You all know that the word of God tells us we are to love everybody.  Well, if you will love everybody, then you will be patient with everybody, which is why Paul said in I Thessalonians 5:14, “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.”
 
2. A Perseverance with Demanding Problems
 
verses 10-11 
 
Now why does he mention Job?  Well, think about what Job faced.  First of all, he faced destitution.  He lost everything that he owned.  Then he faced death.  His children and grandchildren were wiped out.  Then he faced disease.  He was covered with terrible sores and boils. 
 
Then he faced desertion.   Even his own wife basically turned her back on him.  Just like Job, every one of us is going to face demanding problems.  Just as you cannot hide from difficult people, you cannot run from demanding problems.   
 
Now understand that problems are not meant to defeat you, nor are they meant to depress you, nor are they meant to discourage you. They are meant to develop you. 
Problems are not tools to tear you down; they are tests to build you up.
 
So often when we think about Job, we tend to focus on the first part of the book, and we forget about the last part of the book.  After Job went through all of his difficult problems and came out on the other side, listen to what he said:
 
Job 42:1-6
       
Now in essence what Job said was this:  “Lord, I learn things going through these demanding problems that I would have never learned otherwise.  I know you in a way I would have never known you otherwise.”
 
I want to tell you, the greatest lessons you will ever learn in life is not when you party during the good times, but when you persevere in the hard times.  That is what hard times are for.
 
I was reading the other day about the giraffe.  Now I have never seen a giraffe being born, but it must be something.  The first parts to emerge are the baby giraffe’s front hooves and head.  Then the entire calf appears and tumbles ten feet to the ground, landing on its back.  Within a matter of seconds he rolls over and stands struggling with those untried legs.  Then an amazing thing happens.
 
The mother giraffe positions herself directly over her newborn calf and looks it over.  Then she swings her long leg outward and kicks that baby, sending it sprawling head-over-heels. If it doesn’t get up, she kicks it all over again.  If it grows tired, she kicks it again to stimulate its efforts to stand. 
Each time the baby giraffe manages to get to its feet, its mother kicks it over again!  Now that may seem cruel to you, but there is a reason for it.  That mother is simply preparing that little calf for survival, because that calf must learn to get up quickly and run with the herd when danger comes, or he will die and not survive.
 
You see, that calf has to learn the same lesson we all have to learn, and that is when life kicks you and knocks you down, you have to get back up.  Some of the greatest victories in life you will learn are won just by the sheer determination of perseverance.
 
William Wilberforce was a member of the British parliament and a dear friend of John Newton, the former slave who wrote the song, Amazing Grace.  William Wilberforce was a tremendous Christian who saw, early on, the evils of slavery. 
 
He went on a crusade in the British parliament to outlaw slavery in all of the British Empire.  He begged, he pleaded, he introduced bills, and each time he would be laughed down, shouted down, and voted down.  On his deathbed the British parliament finally signed the bill outlawing slavery throughout the entire British Empire. 
 
How long did it take?  Fifty years. 
 
You see, I want you to understand that longsuffering is not a passive resignation that does not even try to solve a problem.  Longsuffering is a positive response that dares to trust God to help you solve a problem.
 
 
I cannot guarantee you that you will be a success, but I can guarantee you that if you are not longsuffering, you will be a failure.  You are not a
Failure until you quit, but when you quit you are a failure.
 
Quitters never win, but winners never quit.  It is not how you start, it is how you finish that counts. 
 
3. A Persistence with a Definite Purpose 
 
James 1:3-4
 
The word for complete means mature. God’s goal for you is maturity, and patience may be a bitter plant, but it always bears sweet fruit.  For full- blown patience makes for a full-grown Christian.  Troubles and troublemakers are in your life to develop longsuffering, and you will never graduate to maturity until you go to the school of hard knocks and learn the discipline of longsuffering, which is patience, perseverance, and persistence.
 
You see, it is by patience we see God’s work in us, and it is by perseverance we learn God’s will for us.
 
Do you know why longsuffering is so difficult?  Because it involves waiting.  I am convinced one of the most difficult things to do in life is wait.  Here in a country that exists on frozen dinners, instant mashed potatoes, powdered orange juice, packaged cake mixes, instant print cameras, and freeway express lanes, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to learn how to wait.
 
I mean, just be honest. Wouldn’t you rather do anything than wait? 
If the truth were known, sometimes we had rather do the wrong thing than wait. 
 
Did you know Jell-O has been around since 1897?  In 1845, industrialist Peter Cooper, who built the first American steam-powered locomotive, obtained a patent for powdered gelatin.
 
Forty years later the formula was sold to a LeRoy, New York-based carpenter and cough syrup manufacturer named Pearle B. Wait. He and his wife May added strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon flavoring to the powder and gave the product its present name and in 1897 Jello-O was born. 
 
But Waite and his wife were unable to successfully market their concoction so in 1899 the Waites sold the business to a neighbor named Orator Francis Woodward for $450.
 
Initially Woodward struggled to sell the powdered product. But through such innovative marketing strategies such as advertisements in the Ladies' Home Journal proclaiming Jell-O to be "America's Most Famous Dessert" and door-to-door salesmen distributing free Jell-O cookbooks, the product eventually took off and today offers more than 158 products and sells in excess of 300 million boxes every year in the United States alone.  
 
Do you know how much the descendents of Pearl and May Wait receive every year from Jell-O sales?  Not a single penny.  Why?  Because Waite just couldn’t wait. 
 
 
 
But the Scripture says, “Those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isa. 40:31)
 
You see, that’s why James says in verse 7, “be patient until the coming of the lord.”
 
My friend, the only reason the world is still here is not because God is powerless, nor is it because God is passive; it is because God is patient.  He is longsuffering.  Jesus is coming back.  Make no doubt about it; that is his promise. 
 
Peter said in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
 
This old wicked world has another day to repent and get saved because of the longsuffering of God.  Therefore, knowing that Jesus is coming back, be reminded that those of us who are longsuffering will be the winners, because winners never quit, and quitters never win.
 
Let’s pray.