BibleVerse

Bible Verses About Patience

Bible patience is not passivity. Romans 5:3-4 makes the sequence explicit — "tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope" — which means patience in the Bible is closer to what serious training is to fitness than to merely waiting in line. James 1:3-4 says the same: the trying of your faith "worketh patience," and patience is to be allowed to finish its work so that you "may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Psalm 27:14 and Isaiah 40:31 make patience an active posture — "Wait on the LORD: be of good courage" — addressed to people whose circumstances are not moving. Fifteen of these verses follow, in full KJV text, with modern English available on every card.

Quick answer: James 1:3-4 gives the mechanism: "the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work." Romans 12:12 compresses the practice into three clauses — "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer." Psalm 27:14 and Psalm 37:7 make waiting an instruction rather than a failure, and Galatians 6:9 attaches a promise to it: "in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

The 15 verses, in full text

01 · King James Version

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Romans 12:12

02 · King James Version

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

James 1:3

03 · King James Version

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

James 1:4

04 · King James Version

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Psalms 27:14

05 · King James Version

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Galatians 6:9

06 · King James Version

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Romans 5:3

07 · King James Version

And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Romans 5:4

08 · King James Version

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Ecclesiastes 7:8

09 · King James Version

He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

Proverbs 14:29

10 · King James Version

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

Colossians 3:12

11 · King James Version

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

Hebrews 10:36

12 · King James Version

The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

Lamentations 3:25

13 · King James Version

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Psalms 37:7

14 · King James Version

Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

James 5:8

15 · King James Version

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

When to read these verses

These verses fit seasons with a clock that will not be rushed: an adoption process, a visa application, a slow rebuild of trust, a recovery measured in months, a prayer that has been answered only with silence so far. The Bible's patience material is unusually honest about the cost — Proverbs 13:12 says "hope deferred maketh the heart sick" — and unusually specific about the payoff: character, experience, and a harvest in due season. Read these when you are waiting well, and especially when you are not.

How to use this list

Copy the verse that names your wait; Romans 12:12 is short enough to memorize whole, and James 1:3-4 is the one most often read slowly, phrase by phrase. Each card toggles between the King James Version and the World English Bible — "patient in tribulation" becomes "patient in suffering" — and the shift is worth reading in both, because KJV "tribulation" carries the sense of pressure rather than mere bad luck. Lamentations 3:25-26 — "it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait" — pairs well with the daily verse on this site's home page. The random verse tool at the top can draw additional verses from this theme.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Bible verse about patience?
James 1:3-4 — "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" — is the most complete treatment. Romans 12:12 is the most memorized: "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer." Galatians 6:9 is the most quoted under pressure: "let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
What does "wait on the LORD" mean in Psalm 27:14?
"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD." The Hebrew behind "wait" carries the sense of expectant, sustained looking-for rather than idle delay, which is why the verse pairs waiting with courage and strengthening. The psalm repeats the instruction twice in one sentence, a repetition unique to its closing line.
What verses help with waiting for an answer to prayer?
Lamentations 3:25-26: "The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD." Psalm 37:7: "Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him." And Habakkuk 2:3, though it did not make this list's fifteen, is the classic: "though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come."
What does "in due season we shall reap" mean?
Galatians 6:9: "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." The metaphor is agricultural — harvests arrive on the crop's schedule, not the farmer's — and the condition attached is endurance rather than perfection. The verse is routinely read to people tired of doing right without visible results, and it assumes the wait is long enough to produce that weariness.

More related topics

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Bible Verses About Peace

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