Patience in Trials

There seems to be a strong connection in the scriptures between patience and the trials we pass through.  Throughout the New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants we are commanded to have patience during trials, and those who do are commended for their faith.  Patience is usually the one thing we do not want to have as we are stuck in the difficulties of life, and the world’s obsession with fast solutions to everything—whether that is fast food or fast shipping or fast service—doesn’t help us to overcome the natural man and develop the patience the Lord expects.  But studying the scriptures can help us to see how important it is to the Lord that we learn to cultivate patience through afflictions. 

                In the New Testament both James and Paul taught us the importance of patience in times of distress.  James wrote to the Church, “[Know] this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:3).  He used the example of Old Testament prophets to show the necessity of such patience: “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.  Behold, we count them happy which endure.  Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord” (James 5:10-11).  If there is one person besides the Savior who was the perfect example of patience during a time of great pain, surely it was Job.  He lost almost everything and yet could still say as he patiently waited upon the Lord, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).  Paul, someone who knew tribulations very well, taught the Romans, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience” (Romans 5:3).  To the Corinthians he encouraged those who were to be ministers for the Lord, “But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses” (2 Corinthians 6:4).  Likewise to the Thessalonians he commended them for having patience in afflictions and distresses: “So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure” (2 Thessalonians 1:4).  To the Hebrews who had “endured a great fight of afflictions” Paul encouraged, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:32-36).  Even if we are doing everything right in our lives, we cannot expect the Lord to immediately take away trials when they come our way: he wants us to cultivate patience if we are to “receive the promise” of eternal life. 

                The scriptures of the Restoration likewise connect patience and trials.  Captain Moroni praised those who had “exceeding faith” and who showed “patience in their tribulations” (Alma 60:26).  As he described the people of Alma in the land of Helam, Mormon said that “the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith” (Mosiah 23:21).  When there were struggles among the Nephites because of the wickedness of some, Mormon recorded that there “was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith; nevertheless, they were steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God, and they bore with patience the persecution which was heaped upon them” (Alma 1:25).  And in our dispensation when the Saints were suffering great persecution, the Lord said, “And all they who suffer persecution for my name, and endure in faith, though they are called to lay down their lives for my sake yet shall they partake of all this glory. Wherefore… seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life” (D&C 101:35-38).  Clearly the Lord wants us to cultivate patience and an attitude of waiting upon the Lord amidst the diverse trials that life brings to us.