Be patient

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. – James 5.7-8

We need to have a quick look at the previous verses here to get the context for this passage.

​Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

James writes of a world that is obsessed with getting rich and prospering materially. He tells that world, caught up in that rat race that all of that is going to be for naught. It is going to rot and corrode and be wasted. All the people those have taken advantage are going to be avenged. Because God gives man free will that is going to keep happening.

So what do we do? How do we put up with it? How do we endure?

Two little words – be patient. Just wait. A better day is coming.  This whole section is all about that patience and how it should be seen in our lives.

But for today we need to just be reminded of how important it is to patiently bear up with what we have and keep in mind that a better day is coming. We need to be like the farmer who patiently waits for the crops to be ready for harvest.

There is a key element of patience here – ‘establish your heart.’ If we don’t get the right heart and right attitude the wait is going to be miserable. Having the right attitude makes all the difference in the world. It’s like sitting in traffic (kind of). If I get caught in traffic I can either accept it and be at peace, or I can get angry and frustrated and make for a miserable time. It’s up to me.

Waiting on Jesus is the same thing. I can get bitter and angry and frustrated, or I can decide to patiently live for Him and serve Him and trust Him enough to believe that His timing is right. It is pretty clear which is going to make the waiting more bearable.

Establish our hearts and minds on Christ and His coming. Be patient and wait on Him to sort  this mess out.