Give Me Patience ... Now! Series

“Don’t pray for patience.”

Who hasn’t heard that before, amen? It’s almost become an axiom when it comes to prayer, hasn’t it? Some of you, I suspect, believe it and have even advised someone in your family or one of your friends not to pray for patience.

I disagree. I pray for patience all the time … and so should you.

If I pray for patience and I end up in a long line or a slow-moving line everywhere I go, or I find myself in a traffic jam, God didn’t cause those things to happen to teach me patience. Life happens. But when I find myself in those situations … when I feel my blood pressure and my frustration rising … when I want to explode because the check out person and the store manager have explained to the customer at the register for the 30th time that they have to buy three 10 oz cans and not two 15 oz cans to get the sales price … which is clearly explained in the store flier … I need to pray for patience.

And God has some pretty interesting ways of answering our prayers, amen? I don’t know if God’s ever done anything like this to you, but He does this kind of thing to me … all the time. Really knocks me off my high horse. As I listen to the check out person and the store manager haggle with the customer, God reminds me what it feels like when I’m the person holding up the line … how I hope my sheepish grin and mumbled apologies let the people behind me know that I didn’t intend to hold up the line … more importantly, what a relief it is when the person behind me graciously smiles and says it’s okay … and I try to pass that grace on when I’m the next one in line whose being inconvenienced.

James would laugh at all of this. The people to whom James was writing were facing far greater problems than slow lines and traffic jams. They were experiencing challenges and difficulties on a number of fronts. In verses 1 through 6, James warns the wealthy church members to stop preying upon the poorer members and taking advantage of them. “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. (v. 1). Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cry of the harvesters have reached the rears of the Almighty” (v.4).

There were those who suffered hardship at the hands of fellow Christians but almost all of them faced persecution from everyone around them. The Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus or accept Jesus’ messiahship threw the Christians out of their synagogues and communities. The Romans arrested them, confiscated their property, fed them to wild animals for their amusement, or used them as human torches to light up their garden parties.

In the face of all this, James advises them to be patient “until the Lord’s coming” (v. 7). For centuries, the people of Israel had cried out: “How long, O Lord? How long before the Messiah, the anointed Son of David, is going to free us from the tyranny of foreign powers?” Even as Jesus walked among the, they continued to cry out, “How long, O Lord?” Blinded by their impatience.

“Be patient, then, brothers, until then Lord’s coming” (v. 7). “When?” the persecuted church cries out. ‘How long, O Lord, before Christ will come again and deliver His people?” If He is coming, it better be sooner than later. The persecution is getting worse and we don’t know how much more we can stand. Have You forgotten us? How long, O Lord, will You hide Your face from us? How long will our enemies triumph over us?

The word that James uses for “patience” is “makrothumia.” “Makrothumia” is made up of two words: “makros” … which means “long” … and “thumis” … which means “temper.” “Patience” or “makrothuma” means to be “long-tempered” but is usually translated as “long suffering.” In the “Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, “makrothuma” describes a “quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or punish; … it is the opposite of anger, and is associated with mercy.”

Bible scholar and commentator William Barclay compares it to “megalopsuchia” … which Aristotle defined as the refusal to tolerate any insult or injury. “To the Greeks,” says Barclay, “the big man was the man who went all out for vengeance. To the Christian, the big man is the man who, even when he can, refuses to do so.”

Jesus Christ is the perfect illustration of “makrothumia.” He was verbally and physically abused. He was spat one … falsely accused … beaten … and nailed to a cross. Not only did He suffer greatly and not retaliate, He asked God to forgive those who persecuted Him and did this to Him. “For this you were called,” wrote the Apostle Peter, “because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps” (1st Peter 2:21).