Be Patient

James 5:7–11 | Stefan Van der Merwe

Our topic today is “Be patient” and as soon as the topic was made known on Whatsapp, I’m sure there were a few of you who couldn’t wait to hear what I was going to say!

James 5:7–11

“7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

10 Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”

1. Patience with yourself

When you look at what it means to have patience, you’re ultimately talking about dealing with your own thoughts and emotions.

This week, my patience was seriously tested when a product that I bought on Monday online was said to be delivered by Friday but was only delivered to our house just before 21:00 last night. By yesterday afternoon, my emotions were all over the place and I realized yet again that patience is not one of my strongest virtues.

It is these same emotions that sometimes drive us up that wall especially when it comes to patience with the self. More than patience with others, we often lack patience with ourselves. As Christians, we should always grow in all virtues and the same goes with patience. Learning to have patience is very important and yet so difficult. We start this process by having patience with ourselves.

As an example, setting goals for yourself goes a long way on a journey towards personal change, but patience here is needed. Saint Francis de Sales once said: Be patient with all things, but, first of all to yourself.

None of us are perfect and we realize that becoming more and more like Christ, although this is a chief aim, is not attained overnight. It takes a lot of work, day by day to strive to become more and more Christlike, and during this process, it is important that we have patience with ourselves. Especially in the days that we have setbacks.

I remember, when I learned to ride a bicycle, I fell off the bike so many times that my knees and hands were all bloody by the end of the day. I also one day drove straight into a thorn-bush to the amusement of my brother watching on, but not even that kept me from getting up and trying again.

This is the same commitment we need to put into personal change, but the process is not short and it calls for a lot of patience and often pain. Give yourself some slack and don’t be too hard on yourself but never stop desiring personal change. You are never too young, never too old, never too perfect, to work at your own character, but be patient in the process!

2. Patience with others

In English, we have the great expression “In a second”. Maybe you’ve sat in the doctor's waiting room before and the receptionist said: “The doctor will be with you in a second”. Or a friend called you and said he’s coming over, and he will be with you “in a second”. Isn’t this a pleasant expression? But you know what — it ALWAYS takes longer than a second!

Patience is possibly one of the surest ways of showing your love for your neighbor! In 1 Corinthians 13:4 the first thing that Paul mentions what love is, is patience! Growing up we used to have these cartoons that say Love is… Here is one of them:

Those who have children will immediately understand the patience needed here!

This image is also a reminder for us, that patience with others begins with patience at home. Your father, your mother, your siblings, your children, your spouse!. That is where our patience is tested often more than any other place because we know each other’s shortcomings and weaknesses. Having patience with a total stranger is often far easier than patience with close relatives and that is why we start here. But patience is also necessary away from home too!

Pauls teaches the church in Thessalonica the following:

“And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. (1 Thessalonians 5:14)”

Working with people is never easy, even church-going people and the context here shows us that patience is needed for a variety of different reasons — the idle, the disruptive, the disheartened, the weak.

Again, the surest way to show love to people is to have patience with them! I was considering having a short list to show you what kind of people we need to have patience with, and then realized that Apostle Paul never had such a list.. all he said was “be patient with everyone!”

This is important because we tend to think that certain people don’t deserve our patience.

Examples of areas where we can practice patience with others include the following:

• Verbal communication (when people interrupt you, don’t stop taking, insult you, or tease you)
• Non-verbal communication (ignore you, sigh when you say something, roll their eyes or lift their eyebrows, turn their back on you or stop communicating with you all together)
• Time usage — people are early or late
• Raising children
• Building a strong marriage (or hanging tight in a difficult marriage)
• Daily at work with our colleagues and the boss!
• The Church

3. Patience in everyday life

There are many times in our lives that our patience gets tested but it seems to have not so much to do with people but merely with life itself!

Who knows of the frustration of only having 24hours in a day! Man, I wish some days had 26 or even 30 hours cause some days are just too short to get everything done!

Situations or tasks that ask for patients include:

• Queuing in line — in a shop, at the bank, at the airport check-in, and the list goes on…
• Allergies and illnesses — God amazingly created the body to heal itself but sometimes it takes time to heal and we need to have patience. Even with intervention from doctors which are necessary sometimes we need to realize that not even doctors can heal in the proverbial second!
• Studies — School studies, degrees, etc. Time-consuming and frustrating at times. Includes online self-study!
• Fixing things! (Vacuum cleaner brush! etc.)
• Puzzles and puzzling out things in life. Figuring out how things work!
• Maths, the list can go on!

There are myriad benefits of being a patient person, both at work and in your private life. It generally means you:

• Are perceived as a more relaxed, friendly person
• Are better able to focus on goals
• Can make more rational decisions
• Are less prone to angry outbursts
• Can learn new things (rather than giving up out of impatience)
• Have stronger mental health, due to less stress

4. Patience with God

This fact that we can be impatient with God seems strange at first but in practice that is exactly how we often act.

The Bible teaches us that God has a plan for each of us.

Proverbs 16:9 teaches us:

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps”

We have to realize that God’s plan for us does not always include the shortcut that we are looking for or planning. We must wait on Him:

• In our illnesses
• In our planning
• In our decision making
• In our frustrations, fears, failures
• In our quest for holiness

The following photo has an important message for us:

We do not serve a Deistic God that created the universe and then chose to stay separate from it and its suffering. Instead God is actively at work in both the micro and macro cosmos and in people’s lives! When His Son Jesus Christ left this earth He sent us His Spirit — the Holy Spirit and through the Spirit of God he is actively involved in our lives.

Romans 8:28 teaches us: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

And finally, we also need patience as we wait on Christ for his return!

Verse 7 & 9 of our text today in James 5 says: “ Be patient — until His coming…The judge is standing at the door” — its a statement that gives you that imminent feeling that things are about to happen isn’t it?

There are many verses that teach us that Jesus can return at any moment, and we must be ready when He does, and yet we sit with the irony that our patience gets tested because of God’s patience.

2 Peter 3:9 teaches us that 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God so loves the world that he shows great patience with it, because He wants people to know you and serve Him.

This is one of the reasons why “Odessa International Fellowship” exists because our focus is strongly on reaching people from parts of the world where Christ is not preached or where preaching the gospel of Christ is severely prohibited.

As we wait on Christ second coming we must be busy in sharing His love with this world — with all people, from all nations and tribes and tongues and only THEN will He return for us. Let us patiently continue this work until He comes for us.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I leave you with an Epigram on patience from the Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations:

“A man is a hero, not because he is braver than anyone else, but because he is brave for ten minutes longer.”

May God give us His grace for us to hang on for this proverbial “ten minutes” longer in all situations that require patience with ourselves, with others, in our daily life, and with our Father's work in our lives and his imminent return.

Amen!