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You have probably prayed a prayer for patience before. And if you are honest, it might have sounded a lot like this: “God, please hurry up.”
Maybe you are waiting on a phone call. A test result. A child who keeps pushing every button you have. A job that should have come through months ago. Or maybe it is not one big thing at all. Maybe it is just the slow line, the loud neighbour, the person at work who needs everything explained three times, and you can feel your temper getting shorter by the hour.
Here is something that might help. The King James Bible has a word for patience that most of us read right past. It does not ask God to make the wait shorter. It asks for something much more useful. It asks for a longer fuse.
The Bible’s Word for Patience Is “Longsuffering”
When Paul lists what grows in a life where God’s Spirit is at work, one of the words is not the one you might expect:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,”
— Galatians 5:22 (KJV)
Longsuffering. It sounds old-fashioned, but it is a very exact word. The Greek behind it is makrothumia. Makros means “long.” Thumos means heat, passion, temper. Put them together and you get something like “long-tempered.” It is the opposite of short-tempered.
So this kind of patience is not mainly about waiting for a thing to arrive. It is about how long it takes before anger arrives. A person with makrothumia still feels the heat. It just has a long way to travel before it reaches the surface.
That changes what you are asking for when you pray. You are not asking God to remove every slow line and difficult person from your life. You are asking for more distance between the spark and the explosion.
God Used This Word First
Here is the part that surprised me. Long before Paul listed longsuffering as something that grows in us, God used that word to describe God’s own self.
In Exodus 34, Moses is on the mountain after the people have already broken faith with the golden calf. It is one of the worst moments in their whole story. And this is how God is introduced:
“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”
— Exodus 34:6 (KJV)
The Hebrew phrase behind “longsuffering” there is erek appayim. Word for word, it means something like “long of nostrils.” In Hebrew, the word for nose, aph, is also a common word for anger (we dug into that in our study of the Hebrew word for wrath). Think of how an angry face flares and flushes. To be “long of nose” is to be slow to flare. Proverbs uses the very same phrase when it says, “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding” (Proverbs 14:29, KJV).
So when you pray for patience, you are not asking God for something foreign. You are asking to share in something God already is. God was slow to anger with a people who had just made a golden calf. That is the patience on offer.
James and the Farmer Who Cannot Make It Rain
The other big patience passage in the Bible is in James. Listen to the picture he paints:
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.”
— James 5:7 (KJV)
A husbandman is a farmer. And in the land where James lived, the farmer’s whole year hung on two rains. The early rain came in the autumn, softening the hard ground so seed could go in. The latter rain came in the spring, filling out the grain before harvest. Between them were long months of watching the sky.
Notice what the farmer cannot do. He cannot make it rain. Nobody can. No amount of worry, planning or effort will bring the clouds one day sooner.
But notice what the farmer is also not doing. He is not sitting still. He ploughs. He sows. He pulls weeds. He mends the fence. He does the part that is his, and he leaves the part that is not.
And here is a small detail worth slowing down for. When James says the farmer “hath long patience,” the Greek is the verb form of that same word, makrothumia. The farmer is longsuffering with the sky. James then adds: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts” (James 5:8, KJV). Stablish means make firm, put down roots. Patience, in this picture, is less like holding your breath and more like a root going deeper while the rain is still on its way.
The Verse Right After the Farmer
Most people stop reading at the farmer. But look at what James says in the very next sentence:
“Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.”
— James 5:9 (KJV)
That is not a change of subject. James knows exactly what happens to people who are waiting too long. They get short with each other. The stress of the unanswered prayer leaks out sideways, onto the spouse, the kids, the coworker, the person driving too slowly.
Then, two verses later, James switches words. “Ye have heard of the patience of Job” (James 5:11, KJV). That “patience” is a different Greek word, hupomone, which means staying under a heavy load without walking away. (If that is the kind of patience you need right now, our piece on Bible verses about perseverance goes deep on it.)
So in a single paragraph, James gives us both kinds of patience side by side. One is patience with people: a long fuse. The other is patience under circumstances: staying under the weight. Most of us need both, usually on the same day.
A Prayer for Patience That Asks for Roots, Not Speed
This is where it all comes together. Most prayers for patience are really prayers for speed. “Make this end.” “Change them.” “Give me the answer now.” And those are honest prayers. God can handle them.
But the Bible’s own words point to a different kind of prayer. Not “shorten the wait,” but “lengthen my fuse.” Not “make it rain,” but “help me keep ploughing while I wait for it.” Not “fix that person,” but “give me a little more of the slowness to anger that you showed people who did far worse.”
You cannot grit your teeth and produce longsuffering. Paul calls it fruit for a reason. Fruit is grown, not manufactured. What you can do is ask for it, and then stay planted long enough for it to grow.
Below are two prayers. One for patience with people. One for patience in waiting. Pray whichever one fits today, or both.
Actions to Take Today
- Name your “rain.” Write one sentence: “The thing I am waiting for that I cannot make happen is…” Then write one sentence underneath: “The ploughing that is still mine to do is…” Keep it where you will see it.
- Find your short fuse. Think of the one person you snapped at (or nearly did) this week. Ask yourself honestly: was it really about them, or was it the waiting leaking out sideways? If it was the waiting, send them a short, kind message today. No explanation needed.
- Practise the long nose. The next time you feel the heat rise, before you say anything, breathe out slowly through your nose and count to five. It is a small, physical way to put a little more length between the spark and the words.
Journaling Prompts
- Where in your life are you asking God to make it rain, when what you actually need is the strength to keep ploughing?
- Who tends to get the leftover stress of your waiting? What would a longer fuse look like with that one person this week?
- God was longsuffering at the golden calf. Where have you been on the receiving end of that kind of patience, from God or from someone else?
Prayer for Patience With People
God, I am tired and my fuse is short, and I know the people closest to me are feeling it. You were slow to anger with people who had just made a golden calf, so I know you have patience enough to share. Please put more distance between my frustration and my words today, especially with the one person I keep snapping at. I do not need them to change first. I need you to grow something in me that I cannot make on my own.
Prayer for Patience in Waiting
God, I have been waiting a long time, and I cannot make this rain come any faster. I have tried worrying it closer and it has not worked. Show me the ploughing that is still mine to do today, and help me leave the sky to you. Push my roots down deeper while I wait, so that when the answer comes, I am still standing, still kind, and still yours.
Let’s Talk About It
Which do you think is harder for most people: being patient with a difficult person, or being patient with a situation that will not change? Share your answer in the comments. I would love to hear what you think.
Sometimes the words just will not come when you try to pray. If that is you right now, you can talk it through with our free Prayer Anywhere assistant (it opens in ChatGPT). It will help you put a prayer into your own words for any moment you are in.
Share This
- “The Bible’s word for patience is longsuffering. Not a shorter wait. A longer fuse. That changes how I pray.”
- “James says to wait like a farmer who can’t make it rain. You can’t control the sky. You can keep ploughing.”
- “God described God’s own self as ‘longsuffering’ right after the golden calf. If God can be that patient with them, there’s patience enough to share with me.”
Questions About Praying for Patience
What is a good prayer for patience?
A good prayer for patience asks God for a longer fuse rather than a faster answer. For example: “God, put more distance between my frustration and my words today, and help me do the part that is mine while I leave the rest to you.” The Bible’s word for this kind of patience, longsuffering, describes being slow to anger, so a prayer for patience is a prayer to be slow to anger with people and steady while waiting.
What does longsuffering mean in the Bible?
Longsuffering is the King James Bible’s word for a patient, slow-to-anger character. In Galatians 5:22 it translates the Greek word makrothumia, from makros (“long”) and thumos (“temper” or “passion”), meaning long-tempered, the opposite of short-tempered. In Exodus 34:6 it translates the Hebrew phrase erek appayim, literally “long of nostrils,” a picture of someone slow to flare up in anger.
What does James 5:7 say about patience?
James 5:7 tells believers to be patient like a farmer who “waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” The farmer cannot make the rain come, but keeps working the field while waiting. The next verse, James 5:9, warns against grumbling at one another, because long waiting often turns into short tempers with other people.
Is patience a fruit of the Spirit?
Yes. Galatians 5:22 lists longsuffering, which is biblical patience, as part of the fruit of the Spirit, alongside love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness and faith. Calling it fruit means patience is grown in a person over time through God’s Spirit, rather than produced by willpower alone.
What is the difference between longsuffering and endurance in the Bible?
In the New Testament, longsuffering (Greek makrothumia) usually means patience with people: being slow to anger when someone frustrates you. Endurance (Greek hupomone, often translated “patience” in the King James Bible) means staying steady under hard circumstances without giving up. James 5 uses both words close together, makrothumia for the waiting farmer and hupomone for the patience of Job.
