How To Face Trials? James 5:7-11

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A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

All of us experience trouble in one way or another. Trials are a part of life. Everything from a flat tire to the death of a loved one, and everything in between conceivable hits our lives. Job said in Job 5:7 Man is born to trouble as surely as sparkly fly upward. Jesus said in John 16:33 In this world you will have trouble. But Christians another trouble that non-Christians don’t have. We have to endure the rejection of a hostile society who rejects the gospel. We all have trials. So how to face trials in life?

Open your Bibles to James 5. James was writing to the Jews who were facing afflictions and persecution. In James 5:7, James is giving us the key as to how to face trials in life.

James 5:7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters. That’s really what it’s all about all the way down through verse 11. It’s a section about being patient in the midst of trials. The basic instruction here for the troubled is to be patient. God is aware that there are trials and there is suffering but nonetheless we are to be patient.

We can have an ungodly response to persecutions and trials as well. In fact, we could even go so far as to blame God, become irritated with Him and transfer some of our frustrations to our own family and Christian brothers and sisters. There are Christians who when they are put into the crucible of suffering become impossible for anyone to stand. So here is a passage calling for patience.

James 5:7-8 7Be 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. 8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

James 5:10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Three times patience is mentioned in this passage. So whatever the trial, you must be patient. It may well be that you’ve lost your job and you are waiting or a breakthrough or whether you are a student and you have a lot of stress or whatever, being patient is not that easy. James says be patient.

The real word meaning here is to be long-tempered, not short-tempered. Patience basically it has the idea of being long suffering with people and circumstances. Patience is enduring a tough circumstances you are going through and not be bitter. Now the question is, but how to be patient?

Six practical keys to being patient during trials.

1. Anticipate the Lord’s coming.

James 5:7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.

The church has always lived in the hope of the Second Coming. We look for the Lord Jesus Christ to return soon. We know we’re not going to be here forever, we know we’re going to a better land, a city whose builder and maker is God. And we live in the light of the Second Coming.

In other words, if you’re going to endure the trials and persecution of the wicked, you’ve got to have your eyes on the return and the arrival of Jesus Christ. It’s the hope of the church.

A Christian who is suffering to look to the coming of Christ. Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

1 John 3:3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

2 Peter 3:11-12 11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.

Now go back to James where he gives us an illustration: James 5:7b See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.

If you’re a farmer, you plant and then you wait for the harvest. The farmer has long patience. The harvest depends on the providence of God. He depends on the harvest for his existence. It may well be also that the few weeks before the crop comes in he’s down to his last rations and he may be almost fasting, waiting for that crop to come in. The farmer has long patience until it comes in.