James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain
Yesterday, when I went to pick up my mom at the Nashville Airport, I had to wait. I drove round and round at the airport. It was probably twenty-five minutes that I waited. How often do we have to wait or enjoy waiting? We are living in a day when we want everything now, instant gratification. I recall thinking when we were waiting for each of my children to be born, “Can’t we speed this up?” We are used to microwaves, the internet, and air travel where you can travel 1700 miles in a few hours. We are impatient people. We do not reward patience.
James 2 says, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.” If a guy who has lots of money comes into your church, you think he is an important person. If the man is raggedy, you just put him to sit in the corner. We don’t reward patience. What if you yanked out someone from history at some point in time to ask, “Is this person a success?” Whether it is George Washington or the most important person you have heard about, you cannot judge success that way. You can’t see the sum and substance of their life if you are just picking them out at some point in time. We don’t reward patience. We want success, ease, and gratification right now.
James 5:1 says, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come.” James is not against rich people altogether. He points to Job who was rich, then poor, then rich again. He was a godly man. Abraham was a wealthy man. Some of the godliest people in the Bible were wealthy, but you are not godly because you are wealthy. The point is we reward wealth; we don’t reward patience. We don’t reward doing what is right if we don’t see the reward instantly.
Oftentimes, we have the faith to do. In Hebrews 11 we have all these people who did great and amazing things by faith. We see what they did; God knows who they trusted. So, there is the faith to do, but in James 5 we find there is a faith to wait. That can be harder. Sometimes I would rather launch out and do something crazy while trusting God, rather than sit quietly and wait because I am trusting God. Patience is the faith to wait.
Patience is the faith to wait on God. James 1 says when you fall to different temptations, know that “the trying of your faith worketh patience.” James 5 gives a couple of examples of faith, of waiting, looking for the big picture, the end game. Verse 7 says, “Behold, the husbandman [farmer] waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience.” Verses 7-11 are about patience, patience, patience. Farmers have patience. A farmer has based his life on the fact that for thousands of years by God’s law you put a seed in the ground, do what you should, and wait, trusting God to do what you can’t. That is patience. Sowing and reaping is patience. You say, “Wil, I have been doing the right things, planting the right things.” Then, you are going to reap. Don’t be weary in well doing. You will reap.
An example is the prophets in verse 10, “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.” Think about all the prophets who have suffered ridicule and mockery. Think about Noah, who famously gave God’s Word to a wicked world who mocked him. The Flood came and swept them all away, but God remembered Noah. Prophets speak the truth and wait. Farmers sow and wait.
Speaking of Job, verse 11 says,”“Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” Job was rich, then ruined, then rich again. Did Job understand his own story? No, through the entire book, Job is over and again defending his integrity and his friends are defending God’s integrity. The devil was a big player in this story, but Job and his friends never knew that. God knew that. The point is that whether you are talking about the plot of ground of a farmer or the plot or trajectory of your life, there are things you can’t see. So, patience is the faith in God to wait.
Farmers, prophets, and Job did this. It is looking at the big picture. What matters is the long haul. Hebrews 13:7 says, “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.” The proof is in the pudding.
Someone says, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” The old rejoinder is, “He who dies with the most toys still dies.” But that is not the end. There is a bigger picture, longer and bigger than what you accomplish in this life. It is beyond this world and life. It includes this life, but you don’t have to know the next ten years to know that God is involved in your life and has a plan. A person who is patient and waits on God is blessed; his Lord will come. The rich who disregard God shall have misery to come. Both are waiting for something. One is wise; one is not. Unwavering is the kind of faith I’m to have. He who wavers is like an ocean wave that is tossed. God, unlike a wave, is not moveable. There is no shadow of turning in the character of God. My faith should be based on God’s faithfulness.
In the subsequent verses we read about Elijah, who prayed fervently, and the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” When it comes to plants and prayer, farmers and prophets, hope comes from patiently waiting on God. Someone says, “I’ve been praying, but I don’t know if I’ve been fervent enough.” I Kings 17 has the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. The prophets of Baal were fervent, yelling and cutting themselves, but nothing happened. They weren’t effectual because there was no god to whom they were praying. Elijah almost comes off as calm. He prays one time and God provides. The point is that his focus, not feeling, was on God.
Where is your focus? Is it the short game? Or are you in this for the long haul? We don’t reward patience, but God does. There is a big picture, an end in sight, and those who trust God are people who are blessed indeed. You can do that today. It is a choice, not a feeling. Patience is the faith in God to wait.