Praying for Pa… er Wisdom.

I’m sure you have heard it said and most likely have said it yourself in prayerful tone…”Lord, grant me patience.” But what does that mean? Are you asking the Lord to instill in you immediately the ability to be able to wait in the moment?  Or perhaps you are asking Him to miraculously add to your character the ability to be long suffering. Are you really asking Him to give you calmness in the face of trial? Maybe what you really mean is…”Lord, I am just human, my self wants to be free from the struggle of this moment, but since I am in it, give me the ability to with stand the agony of it.” It could be that what you really mean is, “Lord, I am not patient get me out of this mess.” Have you carefully considered what you mean when you speak this prayer because most likely you are annoid in the moment?
Let’s look for a moment at what the word patience means. Whenever I do a word study I first go to my son’s childrens dictionary to find the simplest definition, then I use a Bible Dictionary as well as a Hebrew/Greek Lexicon.
Patience: (noun)- If you have patience, you can put up with problems and delays and without getting angry or upset.

Well that truly is an over simplified definition in my opinion. Let’s look on.

Patience: Forebearance under suffering and endurance in the face of adversity.
Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ©1986 Thomas Nelson Publishers

That is a little more like it. A good adult definition. But, what does it really mean? Forebearance is a big word, and suffering, I don’t like suffering… hmmm not sure yet so I need a little more clarity. This source also sites Greek definitions but since I have a Greek Lexicon, I’m just going to check it out myself. I’m just kind of stubborn that way.

Now my Hebrew/Greek Lexicon is a part of an unabridged concordance. If you have never used one of these herze is how it works. First, you find the word and where it is located in the Bible. Then, they give you this coded number which takes you to the either the Hebrew Word or the Greek Word. Now Greek was never a simple language. Most words are given several different possible meanings depending on where in Scripture it was used. Then when you go to look that up, the definition also tells you where to find the root word form. So sometimes it is difficult to narrow down a meaning.  Patience is no different, I find 6 possible greek definitions. All of them are similar in wording so I will narrow down for you by using the most commonly found in New Testament Scripture.

5281 hupomone – hoop-om-on-ay’: from 5278; cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy: enduring, patience, patient continuance (waiting).
Since I am given here the root, I am going to check it also.
5278 hupomeno -hoop-om-en’-o: to stay under (behind), i.e. remain: fig. to undergo, i.e. bear (trials), have fortitude, persevere:-abide, endure, (take), patient (-ly), suffer, tarry behind.
Abingdon’s Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, ©1890 James Strong & ©1980 by Abingdon

These 2 forms of the word are found 33 times in the New Testment.

What I am seeing is…
Patience is while staying in a trial or suffering I cheerfully continue to undergo the affliction with fortitude.

Did you catch that cheerful part? That almost indicates a willingness doesn’t it? But why would we willingly endure suffering? To find that answer that let’s look at some scripture.

James 1:2-6 (NKJV)
“2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have it’s perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, without doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”

Bear with me a moment while I think this through…
Ah, ok, so I am to consider it JOY to be in various TRIALS because I am to KNOW that TESTING my FAITH produces in me PATIENCE hmmmm… So it’s by testing that I learn to have patience. Oh, but then it says, patience is a perfect work. Sure doesn’t feel perfect! But, it goes on to say that if I have patience I would be complete (in my faith?). Let’s see so James is telling me here that I should pray for… Wisdom? Why not patience? Well, if I pray for patience, I would have to joyully endure the trial in order to learn patience. Ok, think on wisdom. Where does wisdom begin? Proverbs 9:10 says ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.’ and Proverbs 3:13 says ‘Happy is the man that finds wisdom and the man that gets understanding.’

Ok, so I think I’m getting this. If I want joy in my suffering then I need to get wisdom by fearing the Lord and getting understanding from the Holy One. So in having knowledge of Christ and a faithful fear of God I begin to understand that I suffer in Him because He suffered. He endured so I too can endure. If He is perfecting my faith through patience in suffering that means I am learning to rely more fully on Him for my hope. That does cause joy in my soul, hope in His salvation which will lead to my eternal reward. Oh that thought brings me peace. 🙂 So when you say that little prayer… “Lord, give me patience.”, you’re really saying “give me sufferings”, because patience is something learned through the test. What you should rather ask is ” Give me wisdom to trust in you in this difficult moment.”
Just something to consider.