When the brother of our Lord, and our brother, speaks to us about patience, he gives us some context. Obviously, the Holy Spirit knows that generally, we are not very patient people. Therefore, He commands us to be patient. This is not just a wise and good suggestion for us to consider. It is a command for us to obey.
But patience is not easy. In fact it is difficult. In or study of this text Sunday night we talked about the fact that patience is hard because we are selfish people. We want what we want, and we want it now. It is difficult because we don’t trust much of anything or anybody. Because of our lack of trust (and some mistrust is justifiable), we aren’t patient with people. And we are not patient because of technology. Technology can be a good thing, but it was invented in part to make everything faster. What used to take hours, days, or weeks of research can now be found through a few second google search.
James knew that patience isn’t easy, so he gives us two illustrations. One about a farmer and the other about the Patriarch Job. We won’t rehash what you already know what our brother writes about these two examples.
What does it all mean? Why do we need to be patient, in addition to the fact we have a command? Just two thoughts for my preaching brothers to consider as we all work on our patience.
Patience can be ours when we trust the work and promises of God. The farmer knows the result will come because he trusts the work done. Seed is planted, seed will produce. Jesus died and rose again. Jesus will in God’s time, make all things right.
Patience is ours when we understand that the results we see are accomplished through a process we don’t see. The farmer doesn’t see what is going on under the ground, but he sees the results. He has to be patient. It will help us with patience if we remember that God is working in wonderful ways that we don’t see to accomplish the glorious results that we will enjoy in eternity.
