Instead, it means "constancy; continuance." If you apply patience to your faith, it means you are constant in your belief in the Word of God. If you understand God to be the healer, then you believe He is the healer before, during and after an attack on your body.
The Word of God says: "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience" (Rom. 5:3).
Read this correctly. Tribulation does not produce patience. If trouble produced patience, we would be the most patient people alive, simply because we're not lacking trouble. "Worketh" means to employ, as an employer employs someone.
In other words, when tribulation is on the scene, what should you hire? Patience. When trouble arises, patience comes to the rescue. That means we just keep believing God's Word and pressing through.
We must love others when we first meet them, when they mess up, and after they've straightened out. Love motivates us to be patient. Even when everyone says so-and-so is not going to make it, we hang in there with him and as a result, we get the joy of seeing him come through.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers