James 5: 7-11
“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as 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.”
It says be patient, which means that we are impatient people.
And James knows that it’s not easy for us to do so , hence he gave an example to encourage them. Like if we have to encourage someone we always tell or share some story or give an example to motivate.
And I was wondering why he took the example of a farmer. If we see farmer’s life, we will find that they wait patiently for the final outcome, because no crop appears overnight and no farmer has control over the weather hence they wait many weeks for the seed to produce fruit.
And it shows that patience really gives us the capacity to ACCEPT or to TOLERATE the delay.
And what I felt is that just like the farmer I should also live patiently, work and wait by faith, without losing hope.
James also gave an example of Job which is really interesting to learn from. Job had absolutely no idea about what was going on in his background or in backend, between God and Satan still he accepted all things and said that, the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Job faced all kind of troubles and sufferings without getting angry and upset.
And It’s really not that easy.
For me verse 11 is very encouraging which says, those who ACCEPT their troubles with patience now, have God’s blessing. And this is what exactly other prophets & Job did, they ACCEPTED their troubles with patience and received God’s blessing.
Written by Amit Prasad