One of the most essential virtues a leader must possess is patience. A hurried heart produces a shallow leader. God Himself is patient. Unless we develop a long view—a vision that stretches beyond the immediate and the visible—patience will never come easily.
When God called Abraham, He promised that Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation (Genesis 12:1–3). God’s word never fails. Yet how many children did Abraham and Sarah actually have? Just one—Isaac. And even Isaac was nearly lost on Mount Moriah. How many people does it take to form a “nation”? I do not know the exact number, but surely one does not qualify. Abraham had received a promise of a nation, but he held in his arms only a single son. Was God truly able to fulfill His word?
And what of Isaac’s generation? If the promise were to be fulfilled quickly, surely Isaac’s family would multiply without delay. But Rebekah was barren. Only through Isaac’s prayer and God’s mercy was her womb opened—and even then, twins were born who could not have been more different. Jacob and Esau struggled against each other, becoming bitter rivals. Their parents could barely preserve Jacob as the child of promise. Where, then, was God’s covenant? Was he truly able to accomplish what He had declared?
Deceived by his uncle Laban, Jacob ended up with two wives—along with their two maidservants—four women in one household. The rivalry and tension within that family hardly reflect stability or peace. Yet through the fierce and painful competition of that home, twelve sons were born. Those twelve would become the patriarchs of the Hebrew nation. Even Jacob’s troubled marriage became an instrument in God’s providence.
Later, when Jacob believed his son Joseph to be dead, he left Canaan and went down to Egypt. Scripture tells us that seventy members of Jacob’s household entered Egypt (Genesis 46). The family was growing—but still far from a “great nation.”
Years passed. Jacob died. Joseph died. A new Pharaoh arose in Egypt who did not remember Joseph. All he saw was this: the Hebrew people were becoming too numerous. If their growth were not restrained, Egypt—and his own throne—would be threatened. The Hebrews had multiplied into a people large enough to alarm the most powerful ruler in the world.
At last, the promise given to Abraham had come to pass—not in Abraham’s lifetime, but in the generations after him.
Faith is inseparable from patience. Without patience, there is no faith. If faith is indispensable for church leaders, then patience is simply faith stretched across time. A leader who cannot wait cannot truly lead.
If patience does not come naturally, how can it be developed? James offers a surprising answer: trials. “The testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:3). If a person endures many trials yet grows only harsher, never learning patience, what kind of leader will he become? The outlook is bleak.
Let us learn to see the bigger picture. Let us cultivate a wider horizon. If selfish ambition resides in our inner world, let us humbly empty it. And even if God’s promises are not fulfilled in our lifetime, let us faithfully fulfill the role entrusted to us today.
Even if the world were to end tomorrow, let us plant an apple tree today.
That is patience.
That is faith.