The Purpose in God’s Patience

Posted on by thechristiantechnerd

I’m starting to realize that God’s patience is not just something I need to learn about — it’s something I desperately need to receive. Not mentally acknowledge, not highlight in my Bible, not recite in small group — but truly receive.

And honestly, I think that’s where the disconnect is for most of us — myself included.

We know God is patient. We say He’s patient. We quote scriptures like:

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you…”
— 2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

But the question I’ve been wrestling with lately is:
How infiltrated am I by that patience?

Have I let it change me? Form me?
Can people feel God’s patience through me?

This morning, while I was driving and thinking through all the things I had to do, I got irritated over a five-minute delay. Five minutes. And then the Holy Spirit just dropped this quiet conviction in my spirit:

“You receive My mercy but reject My pace.”

That hit me hard.

I love being forgiven quickly, but I don’t love having to forgive slowly. I love that God is long-suffering with me, but I expect other people to mature overnight. And I hate to admit this, but even when I ask God for patience, I expect an instant download, not a process.

I’m reminded of the servant in Matthew 18:23-35 — the one forgiven a massive debt by his king but then turned around and refused mercy to someone who owed him very little. That story always hits a nerve. Especially the end:

“Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny.”
— Matthew 18:34 (NLT)

And Jesus wasn’t just talking about money. He was warning us about what unforgiveness and impatience do to the soul. They don’t just strain relationships. They imprison us.

And here’s what I’ve been reflecting on:
Impatience may not land us in a literal jail cell, but it absolutely locks our souls up.

It steals our peace.
It ruins our perspective.
It makes our relationships tense and transactional.
It makes us bitter with God and demanding of others.

The wild part? God doesn’t just demand patience from us — He actually offers it to us. It’s part of the fruit of the Spirit:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”
— Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)

It’s something He produces in us — when we stay connected to Him.

And I think that’s the shift I’m starting to embrace:
Instead of striving for patience, I want to abide in Christ and let patience grow out of the intimacy.

But growth takes time.
Fruit takes time.
Patience takes… well… patience.

Have I asked God to grow patience in me? Yes.
Have I grown frustrated when it didn’t happen fast enough? Absolutely.

But I’m learning that asking God for patience means He’s going to give me opportunities to practice it, not just the feeling of it. He’ll place me in moments where I have to choose it. And not once or twice, but daily. Repeatedly.

The deeper truth is that the world we live in is constantly forming us to be impatient. Fast food. Same-day delivery. Quick replies. Instant results. We’re conditioned to expect immediacy.

But God moves at a different pace.
He works in seasons, not seconds.
He transforms in silence, not speed.

And if I want to become more like Him — more loving, more rooted, more whole — then I have to trust His pace as much as I trust His plans.

That’s hard for me. I like control. I like efficiency. I like clarity. But patience asks me to sit in the unknown and remain kind. It asks me to endure discomfort without becoming bitter. It calls me to wait without losing hope.

And maybe most importantly… patience reminds me that God hasn’t given up on people, so neither should I.

Whether it’s that friend who keeps making poor choices, or the family member I’m tempted to give up on, or even me — the parts of myself I wish would hurry up and grow already — I’m learning to offer the same patience I’ve received.

Because God has been so, so patient with me.


Father,
I thank You for Your patience — not just in principle, but in the lived-out way You’ve walked with me through every season of my mess, my doubt, my delay, my rebellion, and my apathy.

You have never rushed me.
You have never given up on me.
You’ve waited with grace, over and over again.

Teach me to do the same — with others and with myself.
Let Your Spirit cultivate real, lasting patience in me.
Not shallow tolerance, but true, Christlike forbearance — the kind that is rooted in love, not ego.

Help me surrender my timeline.
Help me stop measuring growth by speed.
Help me trust Your pace even when I don’t understand it.

Let Your patience shape my perspective, steady my emotions, and soften my expectations.

I don’t want to just learn about Your patience.
I want to be formed by it.
I want to be infiltrated by it.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

Reflection to Self


The next time I feel that quick sting of impatience rise up — whether it’s with people, my job, my future, or even with God — I want to pause and ask:


“Have I forgotten how patient He’s been with me?”

Because if I truly received His patience, I’d be slower to speak, slower to judge, and quicker to love.

And that’s who I want to be — not just a woman who knows about God’s patience, but one who lives it.

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Published by thechristiantechnerd

22 year old college student! 100% Christian,! Will ALWAYS be a woman of FAITH. And my friends call me the "The Christian Tech Nerd" because I was hired by a very successful tech company in Silicon Valley, and I turned them down to be close to my family!

19 thoughts on “The Purpose in God’s Patience”

  1. This post really reshaped my perspective on patience. I love how you connected God’s timing with our everyday interactions—reminding us that true growth isn’t instant, but deeply formative. I’m encouraged to let His pace guide my heart more than my schedule.

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      2. Your encouragement truly blesses others more than you know. May God continue to inspire you and use your words to uplift hearts and bring hope.

        A prayer for you:
        Lord, thank You for the gift of encouragement that flows through my friend’s words. Please multiply their impact and fill their heart with peace and joy. Help them to keep shining Your light brightly. Amen. 🌸🙏

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      3. It is such an honor for me to receive your beautiful prayer and the kindness of your love. I could hardly hold back tears because of your goodness, my friend. I’m deeply grateful for your words—they touched my heart in a way I will always remember. 🌸🙏❤️

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  2. I got a comment about praying with you on another post and tried to reply but I don’t see my reply. I don’t know why, so I’ll attempt an answer here. The answer is, I will pray with you or help you any way I can. Let me know if you need my email or number. I’m your friend and that’s what friends do, no questions asked. Oh and I want to say this post is very important and I liked it very much.

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  3. Spoiler alert – awkward comment to follow. As a man I find your exceptional beauty and sensuality (picture with cat) sometimes overrides your message. Gets my attention, yes, but shifts my focus. I appreciate and celebrate beautiful women. My mother was a movie star beauty queen and my wife and daughter are wholesome, healthy, intelligent, gorgeous women… like you. There’s a time and place. Just saying.

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  4. I agree. Perfecting patience requires practicing this virtue. So, God does allow intrusive circumstances to enter our lives. Without mastering discipline, we cannot cultivate patience. This is one instance in which we must strive to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. After all, we are His adopted children and partakers of the divine life through our baptism.

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    1. atience truly is a virtue that deepens through practice and trust in God’s timing. It’s powerful to think of life’s challenges as opportunities to grow in discipline and become more like our Heavenly Father. Your words are a beautiful reminder of our identity as His beloved children, called to live in grace and perseverance. Blessings to you on your journey of faith!

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  5. “You receive My mercy but reject My pace.” Instant gratification society has molded us into impatient beings.

    As someone credited with lots of patience – I learned very quickly after becoming a father – My patience is not as good as many perceive.

    My son 3 years old at the time said, “Mommy daddy yells a lot.” In that moment the Spirit convicted me. How patient God is with me, yet my patience was none exist with the gift he had given me. While it’s gotten better, I still need Spirit to convict and lead me today.

    Great post! I will surely ask myself, “Have I forgotten how patient He’s been with me?”

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    1. Your words really touched me, especially the reminder of how patient God has been with each of us, even when we fall short again and again. It’s humbling and powerful to see how the Spirit can use even our children to gently convict and redirect us.

      I appreciate your vulnerability and the grace in your message. It’s a beautiful encouragement to pause and reflect on the pace of God, and to trust that His timing is always rooted in love. That question—“Have I forgotten how patient He’s been with me?”—is one I’ll carry with me too.

      Thank you again for this reminder.

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  6. Patience is a tough one to learn. Remember that In John Chapter 15 that Jesus tells us that he himself is the vine, but we are the branches. We have to stay abiding in Jesus the vine, and drinking in the life filled sap that comes from the vine into us who are the branches. Jesus said, “For without me you can do nothing”. So it is the continual inflow of the life sap of God through Jesus Christ that empowers us to bear good fruit. Any efforts of our own are futile and a total waste of time, for without King Jesus Christ we can do nothing. It took a very long time for me to accept the fact that I am a nobody and a nothing. I have no power, no ability, no strength, no wisdom. I am nothing, and I have absolutely nothing. Yet Jesus Christ made me to be a branch connected to himself the vine. A branch such as I am is like a pipe. It is an empty conduit that allows fuel to flow through it. I have zero substance or fuel of my own, so all has to come to me through Jesus the vine. He demands that I bear an abundance of GOOD FRUIT, and that my fruit shall remain. I was born again to be a branch connected to Jesus Christ, so now I have but one true job. I am to be of “Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled”. I hunger daily and I thirst daily for the sap of eternal life to flow into me through Jesus the vine, so I may bear an abundance of good fruit. So what exactly is this sap coming out of Jesus and flowing into each branch that is connected to himself? It is he himself who is “The Word Of God”. Jesus refers often to the “Word Of God” as being water. “For out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water”. “Out of your innermost being shall flow springs of living water”. I discovered some years ago a secret that has never failed me. I am able to begin to write in my journal, not knowing what I will write, and having pre-prepared absolutely nothing. When I begin there are maybe 3 or 4 words in my mind. I begin to write and the words flow endlessly out of my “belly”, “heart”, “soul”, “spirit”, “innermost being”. I can continue on as long as I desire, and I quit only when I decide to quit. The words include thoughts, emotional feelings, teaching, convictions, desires, knowledge, and all other things that make up a spiritual person. These words are a mixture of Jesus Christ the Word of God, and myself. I am the host body that Jesus Christ came to live inside of, so there is a necessary mixture of both of us in these words that flow out of my belly. At the beginning it is difficult to write a lot of words every day. You will easily get bored, tired, feeling dead inside, overcome by depression and evil flashbacks to scenes and feelings out of your own past. There will also be times of joy, light, happiness. The devils attack you fiercely to get you to stop doing this type of writing. Only recently have I arrived at the place where I can comfortably write over 100 paragraphs daily. I define a paragraph as size #13 font on Word Press and four complete lines with no early cut offs. So 100 lines equals 400 uninterrupted lines of continual writing. What has this done for me? I can now live with zero sins of the flesh happening inside of me. Most of the clinical depression that I was born with has disappeared, I learn amazing things taught by God himself, and miracles happening in my life one after another several times every month. What happens if I stop writing like this? Very soon I begin to sin once again, and my life becomes a literal “hell on earth” experience all over again. Then to come back it takes a rather long time of very difficult labor to allow my inner being to become saturated once again by the results that come as these divine words flow through me. This entire message was written in this manner. I had no idea what I would write, but wrote it all anyways. These words literally flowed out of my spirit and were written on my laptop keyboard. I testify that the greatest changes and transformations in my live have come to me while doing this type of writing, and is a lesser manner by speaking words out of my spirit. They seem to be much more focused and clear when they are written.

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