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Do you struggle with patience? If you’re anything like me you can’t stand waiting in traffic. I can’t stand waiting for people to change and most of all I can’t stand waiting on God to do something in my life. And yet over and over again in the Bible we are encouraged to WAIT! And so today we are going to talk about what it looks like to be patient.
Hey everyone welcome back my name is Allen Parr and today we are talking about patience. Now we all know we should be patient at all times but I believe there are 3 specific times in our lives where we need an extra dose of patience and in James 5:7-12 he gives us 3 illustrations to help us better understand patience.
1. Patience with your Circumstances
a. ILLUSTRATION: For this first illustration James uses the example of a farmer. This refers to being PATIENT WITH YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES. A farmer as we know has no control over whether or not it’s going to rain, the amount of sunshine, whether or not people will buy their crops or not and yet they still have to plant seeds.
b. GREEK WORD: Wait - “to look with anticipation” - The reason why a farmer could be patient is because of how faithful God had been in their past. Even though it may take longer than expected a farmer can look back and see that God was faithful to send rain each year.
c. In the same way…
d. EXAMPLES:
i. Unemployment - continue to fill out applications and submit resumes
ii. Business growth/Ministry growth
iii. Promotion on your job - continue to plant seeds
e. These are all situations that you have absolutely NO control over and yet you have to keep sowing seeds in anticipation that one day your situation will change.
f. And so in the same way we can be patient and continue to plant seeds
The second illustration James uses is that of a prophet and this refers primarily with being…
2. Patience with PEOPLE
a. Prophets - They had to continue to share God’s word with stiff-necked stubborn people who refused to change year after year.
b. The Greek word he uses here is the word Macrothumeo
c. Perhaps God has placed some people in your life that refuse to change. (family member, spouse, a child, a boss or coworker).
d. No matter what you do this person refuses to change. You have clearly shown them what they need to do and the route they need to take and yet they refuse to change. You’ve shared God’s truth with them. It’s clear to you what they need to do and yet they can’t see what you see. For whatever reason they aren’t changing as fast as you would expect them to. This is the second time when we need to make sure we are being patient.
The third illustration James uses is from the life of Job and this refers primarily to being patient when your PAIN IS UNEXPLAINABLE
3. Patience with God
a. Job - Lost everything, health, wealth and his family and to his knowledge there was no apparent reason for why he was experiencing this pain.
b. Hupomeno
c. You can’t figure out WHY you are experiencing the pain that you’re going through
i. Physical illness
ii. Unemployed
iii. Loved one who is sick
iv. Spouse who is mistreating you
d. When we read the story of Job we notice that even though he could not see it God was behind the scenes working things out that Job had no idea about.
e. In the same way God is encouraging you to remain under the pressure when you don’t understand why you are experiencing pain and what God is doing behind the scenes.
Encourage you to study this passage on your own time or look up other scriptures that will encourage you as you wait on God.