Patience? Have Mercy!
Scripture Reading: James 5:7-11

Today’s Treasure: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22).

Have you ever known a serene person who never passed judgment on others? How often do failures, emotions, or outright sins of someone else ruin your peace of mind? What would it be like if you refused to allow the behavior of others to spoil your day? There exists a precious commodity called patience, a characteristic of the fruit the Holy Spirit desires to bear in your life. Patience is inspired by mercy, devoid of condemnation, and evidence of the presence and power of our Holy God.

Some people might think patience is a dangerous thing to pray for. They might fear God would build the quality in them by causing every line they stand in to be outrageously long, every freeway they drive on to be grid-locked, and for their internet connections to be especially slow until they could tolerate anything. While patience would be necessary in any of those situations, this is not the same kind of patience spoken of in Galatians 5:22.

Two important Greek words translate into the English word patience: hupomone and makrothumia. Both words are vital in the life of the believer, but only one is a quality of the fruit of the Spirit. Hupomone is most often associated with patience. It is perseverance, endurance, and bearing up under difficult things or circumstances inspired by a beneficial expectation. It is inspired by hope.

Job was one Biblical character who possessed hupomone. James 5:11 says, “As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.” Have you ever wondered why Job remained faithful? Job 23:8-10 indicates that Job had the hope that even though he could not “find” God, he knew God had not lost him. He also had hope in a very precious promise: “when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”

According to The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, makrothumia, the other word that translates into patience, means “to be long suffering.” It means “forbearance…self-restraint before proceeding to action.” It is “the quality of a person who is able to avenge himself yet refrains from doing so. Makrothumia is patience in respect to persons, while hupomone, endurance, is putting up with things or circumstances.”*

Hupomone, or endurance, is inspired by hope; makrothumia, or the fruit of the Spirit called “patience,” is inspired by mercy. Everywhere you discover the word, you find some form of mercy. The Greek word for the kind of mercy found in makrothumia is eleos, meaning “mercy, compassion, active pity, with the sense of goodness in general, especially piety.”*

Now you’re about to see why this kind of “patience” requires being Spirit-filled. When it comes to prioritizing between circumstances and people, God is obviously going to choose people. How we respond to circumstances is important, but how we respond to people is critical.

Wouldn’t you agree that to be patient with circumstances is far easier than with people? Consider why this might be true: we need to respond with hupomone when someTHING is trying us. We need makrothumia when someONE is trying us. With hupomone we have no one to blame! When it comes to dealing with trying people, we have someone to blame, so we need all the help we can get! Amen?

Patience is the release of the fruit of the Spirit; it is the supernatural outcome of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Makrothumia is impossible except when expressed by God through us.

Heavenly Father, I have suffered great frustration as I've tried to practice makrothumia in my own strength. Please manifest in me the patience that requires mercy and help me show compassion and goodness to trying people around me. Lord, let me be genuine, just as You are genuine in Your patience and mercy toward me. In Jesus' name, Amen.

*Spiros Zodhiates et al., eds., The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1992), 939, 564.

Adapted from Living Beyond Yourself, by Beth Moore, pages 107,111-112. Nashville: LifeWay Press, 1998. Used by permission.