All Christians are called to have and exhibit patience. James likens the patience we are to have to...
- A Farmer. (v. 7) The farmer works hard, but there are long periods in which the farmer must exhibit patience. He has to wait for the winter to end so that he can plant. The farmer waits for the seed to grow so that he can reap in the fall. Many of us need to learn patience like this so that we can grow, or mature, spiritually. In addition, we need to learn patience as we wait for God to work in the lives of others. How long we must persevere to see the fulfillment of God's will in our lives.
- The prophets (v. 10). The prophets of the Old Testament spent much of their lives speaking out about the work of God. In fact, some of the prophets even acted out the word of the Lord on occasion. Then there were periods of waiting. They waited on the people to repent. They waited on God to act. You and I are similar in many respects. We are waiting for God to fulfill his promises. We must continue waiting for God to do his work.
- Job (v.11). Like Job, we must learn to wait for the persecution of Satan to end. Satan had taken all that Job had, all that seemed important to him. And although we may never have to endure that level of persecution, Satan does, and will, attack. We need to be patient as we learn to wait. In addition, Job's friends came to comfort him in his time of trouble. However, their comfort turned out to be ridicule. Job's friends, and even his wife, made his suffering even worse. You and I will also be ridiculed by others. We must have patience to overcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment