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Let's read it together as a refresher:

The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

GALATIANS 5:22–23

Notice, please, the fourth on the list. Patience. The original Greek term unloads a lot of meaning upon us. Makrothumia is the term, and it's a compound word. Makros means “long or far,” and thumos means “passion, anger, or wrath.” Putting it together, we come up with “long-anger.” You've heard the English expression, “short-tempered”? Well, I suppose we could coin an expression for patience—long-tempered—and not miss the accurate meaning very far.

So many Christians express frustration over their repeated failure to display this all-important virtue. But the key is in the beginning of the verse. Did you see it? The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. That's it! You cannot muster patience—it, along with all the other fruits mentioned, is formed within us by the Spirit of God. He makes it happen.

James offers a helpful description of the patience-forming process:

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy [one fruit!]. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance [that's patience!] has a chance to grow. So let it grow [that's the Spirit forming!], for when your endurance [patience!] is fully developed [Spirit work!], You will be perfect and complete, but you need nothing.

JAMES 1:2–4

Facing trouble today?
A long struggle with uncertainty, or confronting a seemingly impossible obstacle in your life?

The Spirit is at work, forming patience in you. Don't resist it . . . embrace it! Let Him lengthen your temper. You can't, but He can.

"We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown."
(1 CORINTHIANS 15:51–52)

Talk about “the flash of a mighty surprise!” Jesus' return will be the absolute greatest surprise. Adding to the greatest surprise will be that people like us will be included in the group, stunned and dumb with wonder.

Let's face it, that won't be just a surprise or a dream. That'll be a flat-out miracle.

Are you ready? Are you sure?

When Job’s life fell apart, he asked the same questions human beings have asked for millennia: Why me? What did I do to deserve this?

How could God allow this to happen to me?

Maybe you’re in Job’s shoes— feeling abandoned, rejected, and hopeless. Maybe you are demanding answers from God. But as Job discovered, knowing the God who created you is better than knowing the answers to all your questions. Because when you know and trust his love, you’ll find the freedom and hope that will enable you to trust in God’s control over all things, even your suffering.

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.

PHILIPPIANS 3:7–9

In comparison to Jesus Christ and all the things He has made possible—His forgiveness, His love, His righteousness—everything else we may be or accomplish diminishes in significance. That level of acceptance and realization is developed in us when we willingly surrender to the Spirit's work in our lives. Left to ourselves, we'll hint and insist and suggest and even demand that everyone around us acknowledge the value of our contributions and applaud us for our abilities. I can tell you, that's no way to live!

During the early years of my ministry, I lived as a prisoner to my own insecurities—shackled to my own feelings of inadequacy and an unending struggle to measure up to self-imposed standards of perfection. I was a mess! I finally learned to get out of the way. I traded off perfection and accepted reality: it's all about Him, not me.

It's time to take the attitude of Christ—laying down our lives in full surrender and obedience—and insist on giving Him the glory. You are wise to hit the “pause” button before doing anything else today. Ask the Lord to help you back off and allow Him to lead. John the Baptist got it right: “He must increase . . . I must decrease” (John 3:30, KJV).

Only God Can Change a Mind

Paul wrote to the church in Rome for people to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” (Romans 12:2) He doesn’t say “transform yourselves by renewing your minds.” Only God can change a mind. This explains why Paul wrote to Timothy that God has “not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) When God is present in a mind, it begins to flow with a new kind of thought. But there is a role for us to play. We can, by choice and by our actions, invite God to be present in our minds. Or we can close the door to him. It all depends on what kind of mind we want to cultivate. So let’s walk through three options.

1. Maybe your goal is debauchery, lust, and depravity.
It’s not hard to cultivate a mind like this. You can do it. Just be careful about what you do and don’t put into your mind. The moods that will dominate your life are resentment, anxiety, and unsatisfied desire. The key to maintaining this inner life is found in Psalm 10:4: “In their pride, the wicked does not seek him; In all their thoughts there is no room for God.” It’s not hard to cultivate this kind of mind. All you have to do is avoid contact with anything that would disrupt this flow of thoughts. Avoid Scripture, avoid wise and honest people who know you deeply, avoid honest self-examination, and avoid contact with people in need who might move you to compassion. Mostly you have to ensure that there is no room for God in your thoughts.

2. If your goal is to have a mediocre spiritual life, you can do a half-and-half deal.
The Bible talks about this. One writer speaks of a condition called “double-mindedness.” In the Jewish tradition, it is called the yetzer hara, the wayward heart. Jesus himself refers to a church suffering from what he called “lukewarmness”; it is neither cold nor at the boiling point. It doesn’t experience any change of properties. This condition enables you to get the worst of all worlds: you experience a kind of chronic, low-level, hidden debauchery so you’re frustrated by all the fun you think that major-league debauchery professionals are having. Yet you get just enough spiritual-religious input so you have chronic, low-level guilt about the amount of depravity you are maintaining. How do you pursue this goal? Get sporadic spiritual input. Go to church sometimes. Read the Bible once in a while — but without clarity about how you want it to shape your mind. Pray sporadically — when you’re in trouble. But then mostly fill your mind with the things that everybody else in our culture fills their minds with. Just keep spiritual channel surfing.

There is a third alternative.

3. Make your mind the dwelling place of God.
The goal here is to have a mind in which the glorious Father of Jesus is always present and gradually crowds out every distorted belief, every destructive feeling, every misguided intention. You will know your mind is increasingly “set on God” when the moods that dominate your inner life are love, joy, and peace — the three primary components of the fruit of the Spirit. God is never more than a thought away. To make my mind a home for Jesus, I deliberately fill my mind with the kinds of things God says are important. Paul puts it like this: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8, NIV)