“Has the LORD lost his patience?” (Mic. 2:7, GNB)
The sixth fruit of pride is impatience.
This word, impatience, is not often found in Scripture, instead the concept is frequently replaced by words that relate to time, or to waiting.
The word impatient is found around five times (Num. 21:4; Judg. 10:16 and 16:16; Job 21:4 and Zech. 11:8), often as a human attribute, as it is in strict opposition to, for instance, a Scripture such as Mic. 2:7 (GNB): “Do you think the people of Israel are under a curse? Has the LORD lost his patience? Would he really do such things? Doesn’t he speak kindly to those who do right?”” The answer to this rhetorical question is a definite no.
The reason for this is that all impatience is usually related to time, and God exists outside of that realm. He is, after all, El Olam, the Eternal God (Gen. 21:33). His children also live in that timeless realm, and can thus not be impatient! Time is albeit always a factor in God’s eternal plan. Selah. Isa. 42:9 makes it beautifully clear, as follows: “Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
We are familiar with the well-known 1 Cor. 13:4, “Love is patient” (ESV), but we don’t find a lot of reference to the notion of impatience. The word that is used in more classic translations, is then also not the negative end of impatience, but the positive: to be long-suffering, which according to Thayer means “to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart; to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles; to be patient in bearing the offences and injuries of others; to be mild and slow in avenging; to be long-suffering, slow to anger, slow to punish”. This is also one of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) in believers.
But the antonym is nowhere to be found. It is spotted in expressions like being hasty (Prov. 19:2, for instance), to not grow weary (for instance Gal. 6:9), or in stories of people whose behaviour speaks of impatience (Abram who, in Gen. 16:1-2, did not want to wait for God’s promise; Saul who, in 1 Sam. 13:6-12 did not want to wait for Samuel to make the sacrifice; the prodigal son who could not wait for his inheritance, in Luke 15:2, and others).
It is of great importance to know that impatience clearly reflects your carnal nature, and is a sure indication of the fruit of pride, as it elevates the person above time, which is in God’s hands (Ps. 31:15; Ecc. 3:1-8; John 7:6). In Acts 1:7 it is made very clear: “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.”
- Selah: Is this fruit perhaps present within you?
- Read: 26-27; 1 John 5.
- Memorise: 1 John 5:18.
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Rock Mimms’s Add to your Faith the chapter on ‘Impatience’ (pp.85-90).
