How to Be Patient (Growing in a Hurried World)

In a world of instant everything, patience feels harder than ever — yet it's one of the qualities we most need, both with people and with our circumstances. Here's a practical guide to growing in patience.

Patience is worth growing

Impatience damages our relationships, our peace, and our witness, while patience brings maturity and calm. The Bible presents it as a mark of love and a fruit of the Spirit worth pursuing: 'let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.'

Remember God's patience with you

The deepest motivation for patience is remembering how patient God has been with us — slow to anger, bearing with our failings again and again. When someone tests our patience, recalling God's endless patience with us softens our hearts to extend the same.

Slow down and pause

Much impatience comes from being rushed and reacting too fast. Building in margin, slowing your pace, and pausing before you respond gives patience room to grow. A deep breath and a moment's prayer can defuse an impatient reaction before it happens.

Trust God's timing

Impatience with circumstances often reveals a struggle to trust God's timing. Believing that God is at work even in the waiting — that he is never late — helps us wait with peace rather than frustration. 'Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap.'

Let trials train you

Patience is often grown through the very things that test it. Rather than resenting delays and difficult people, we can see them as God's training ground — the classroom where patience is developed. Cooperating with that process is how patience deepens over time.

Growing in patience means remembering God's patience with us, slowing down and pausing before we react, trusting God's timing, and letting life's trials train us. It won't happen overnight — patience, fittingly, takes patience — but with the Spirit's help it can steadily grow. In a hurried, easily frustrated world, a patient heart is a beautiful and countercultural thing.