My canine companion Maggie and I try to do a couple of walks per day. We have individual goals. She likes to sniff and I like to pray.

On a recent walk it occurred to me how often I thank God for one particular response to me.

Patience.

For over four decades I have been responding to God’s grace and love in very inconsistent patterns. Sometimes I am grateful and serving. Sometimes I am selfish and frustrated. Yet His love for me never changes one bit.

I sometimes imagine comparing my faith journey to being a new employee beginning an amazing and undeserved job. On the day I am hired and sign the contract I am excited and committed. I keep that excitement going for a while until I begin to encounter circumstances that discourage me. Instead of going to the boss or seeking solutions I begin to doubt the company and boss. My effort and trust fade rapidly. If I am challenged to renew my commitment the chances are I would. But what if the same pattern developed over and over? Even the most compassionate earthly boss would eventually let me go and it would be deserved.

Compare that to the patience of my Heavenly Father. I think of the gifts of forgiveness, love, and grace that God has given me for decades. My “job” is to simply trust Him. Yet I have failed to do that over and over and over and over and…well…you get the point. Yet God never leaves me. His patience is as overwhelming as His grace and love. How can He be so patient with me?

In Galatians 5:22-23 we see the familiar gifts of the Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 

Love, joy, and peace are the first three mentioned but if I may use a baseball example the vital clean-up spot in the lineup is patience. When you live out of God’s love you experience joy and peace that is not achievable in any other process.

Combining those three fruits of the Spirit gives you the patience to trust God in His timing. It gives me the confidence to follow His plan. That goes against much of our cultural upbringing but I am learning how freeing and peaceful it is to trust God to determine my timetable.

Peter gave us great insight into why God seems to move slower than we might sometimes desire.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8–9)

I long for the day that the Lord returns. But God is not procrastinating in fulfilling his promise. He wants to give everyone a chance to come to repentance. That realization allows me to trust His timing and look forward to that day.