“God’s Waiting Room”
James 5:7-12
About ten years ago I had the bright idea that I would play football with a group of teenagers from the church. Tackle football. One of the first times that I got the ball 3 of them came up to me and grabbed me by my left arm and began to swing me in a circle until I fell to the ground. I felt something move in my shoulder. So I had to have two separate procedures done on my shoulder. During my follow-up I went to see the surgeon. I recall that I had an appointment at 1:00 that day. I waited…2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30…finally when it was almost 4:00 they called me in. Clearly that’s why they call it the waiting room. I don’t like waiting rooms. And I’m not really sure that I know anyone who does.
Let me ask you, how are YOU in the area of patience. There are times when God places us in the waiting room of life. Now I don’t know about you but it seems to me that people today are more impatient than ever before. We have gotten so accustomed to having things quickly that when we have to wait on anything we grow very impatient. On a daily basis, we wait
• In traffic
• Kids wait to grow up
• Teenagers wait to finish school
• Senior adults wait to retire
• We wait for a job
• We go in at 8:00 and can hardly wait for 5:00 to come.
Every day we have one opportunity after another to learn how to wait.
In this passage today James addresses the topic of patience. The people James was writing to were experiencing great persecution. Their lives were very difficult. So James gives them some simple advice… here it is. Be patient. But it’s not that easy is it. It’s not enough to tell someone to be patient. We have to show them how. And that is what he does today.
Patience is often defined in the Bible as longsuffering. Patience is an attitude of the heart. It is a virtue and in the eyes of God it is very valuable. He wants all of His children to have it. Patience is listed as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and the only way it can be developed is when we walk through a trial. No other way. If you want patience you will have to face something difficult. The story is told of a young Christian who went to an older man who had walked with the Lord for many years. He said I want to become more patient and I don’t know how. He said, simple, Let’s pray. The man prayed for him and this was his prayer, “Lord send this young man tribulation for breakfast, problems for lunch and suffering for supper.” It’s the only way.
The word, patient is used 4 times here, twice in v. 7, once in v. 8 and again in .v 10. James illustrates patience by holding up the life of a farmer. All of us can learn a lot about faith from those who farm. Farmers plow and plant their seeds and then they wait for the rain. Then they wait some more. Besides prayer there is nothing a farmer can do to make it rain. So they just wait. They treat their crops with chemicals. Then they wait some more. They wait until just the right time and then they harvest their crop.
This illustration of the farmer tells me at least 3 things. (1) God’s purposes are worked out over long periods of time. God doesn’t work on our schedule. We have to learn to work on His. There is no need to try and rush God; there is no need to try to get ahead of God--- we must somehow learn to function in His timing. Why? Because His timing is always best. He is rarely known to be early but He is always known to be on time.
(2) Although we do the work, the harvest depends on God. Always. In Matthew we find the story of Jesus; He is going through the villages and towns, teaching, preaching and healing people. Then Jesus sees the crowds and the Bible says He has compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd. Then He says to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. So ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers. Now herein lies the problem in many churches today. There are simply not enough workers.
Look again at this. The harvest is plentiful. In other words, God wants to bless his churches… there’s a great harvest waiting; but there’s simply not enough workers. You say well cant God do it without us? Of course, but He has chosen not to. He has chosen to use us. It is our privilege to work for Him.
(3) The harvest/crop is worth waiting for. Verse 7b. The farmer waits patiently for the harvest. Why? Because it’s worth it. In the same way we are to wait patiently for the Lord’s coming. Why? Because it’s worth it. At that point when we see Jesus all of the trials and tribulations we face will seem harmless. The pain we experience will no longer have a grip on us. Temptation will no longer be of any consequence. Because we will be looking Jesus right in the eye, we will know Him as we are known. Our knowledge will be complete. So James says, be patient, it will be worth it.
Look at verse 10. James tells us to look to the prophets as an example. There are good examples and there are bad examples.
Moses was a great leader but Moses lost his patience and as a result he wasn’t allowed to enter the promised land. Has it ever occurred to you that when we lose our patience and we just say “I quit”, or we walk away, we just might miss our promised land.
God promised Abraham he would be the father of many nations. When God made the promise, Abraham had zero children. None. When Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 they had their first child, Isaac. Know what his name means? Laughter! Because when God told Abraham and Sarah they would have children that late in life, Sarah just laughed. It was funny. But they did. The Bible says that after Abraham patiently endured that he received the promise.
James points us to one of the OT prophets—Job. The story is told of Abraham Lincoln that his son came in one day and asked, “Father where have you been?” Lincoln said, I’ve been to the war department. He asked well is there any news? He said yes plenty of news, but no good news. It’s dark everywhere. Lincoln then reached over and took a Bible from the shelf, opened it and started reading. 15 minutes passed and Lincoln’s wife noticed the sad look on Lincoln’s face was gone and now he seemed to be happy. Wondering what had happened, she walked over to see what book he was reading from in the Bible. She looked and saw that he was reading from the comforting book of Job.
Job was considered to be a very spiritual man. The Bible says of Job that he was blameless, that he feared God and that he shunned evil. Job has ten children, 11,000 animals including camels, oxen and donkeys. Also may servants. He had been blessed in every way imaginable. He had a strong family. He had wealth and he was a man of great faith. But in a matter of only a few days, Job lost his home, all of his animals and all 10 of his children. Then Job’s health began to be affected and he became very sick. Then his friends turned against him. His wife told him to curse God and go ahead and die. When I read this story, comfort is not exactly what I feel. But this is what I do find. The Bible tells us that Job’s response to all of this was that (1) he never blamed God (2) he fell down and worshipped Him and (3) he never sinned as result of his tragedy.
And to this day, thousands of years later when we speak of this man named Job, more than anything we still speak of his patience. The patience of Job. And perhaps that’s where Lincoln found his comfort that night.
Patience has an enemy. Do you know what it is? Anger. Anger is what keeps us from practicing patience. Paul said, “in your anger do not sin.” So anger is not the issue; the issue is how we handle our anger. How we process it. There are right ways and there are wrong ways. Let me give you 3 ways we often process anger. Two of them are wrong by the way.
(1) We often suppress it. Counselors often refer to this as stuffing. We stuff things inside of us rather than deal with them. Most of us do this to some degree but some of us are masters at it. Some of us grew up in homes where it was necessary to stuff our feelings inside because they were just too much to deal with. And it is one of the reasons that we become angry people. You see those feelings need to get out somehow. If they don’t the result is stomach problems, migraines, ulcers perhaps. So don’t suppress it.
(2) We often express it. Psychologists often say that that many of us walk around every day with a bucket full of anger that we carry. And we just need to dump it somewhere. So they say it’s good to just vent; it’s good to just go ahead and blow up and get it out of your system. Some say you should take a pillow and bury your face in it and just scream as loud as you can. Take a baseball bat and beat up the tree in your backyard. Problem is that doesn’t work very well. Solomon said, “a fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.“
(3) So if we don’t suppress it and we don’t express it what can we do with it? The best thing to do with it is to confess it. When you’re angry, admit it. Admit it to yourself. Admit it to God and admit it to the person you’re angry with. Talk with them and say, I’m hurt over what you said (or did) and I feel angry but I want you to know that I care enough about our relationship and about you that I want us to deal with it.
Patience is a characteristic of knowing Jesus. It is a result of being born again. When we receive the Holy Spirit at the time we are saved we then have the ability to practice the fruit of the spirit and one of those is patience.
Patient people are hard to provoke. They don’t get upset easily. Impatient people. They’re a piece of cake. You can provoke them in a heartbeat. James closes this passage with an interesting statement. Look at verse 12. “Above all, my brothers, do not swear-not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Why at the end of a passage on patience does he tell us not to swear? If you have ever suffered over anything you know this: when we suffer it is all too easy to say things we really don’t mean. And it’s easy to bargain with God and say Lord if you’ll do this, I’ll do that. James says don’t’ do that.
This is what this passage tells us… when you become impatient with someone…
• Don’t focus on yourself or you’ll just have a pity party.
• Don’t focus on someone to blame or you’ll just start to complain.
• Don’t focus on the present or you will just become angry and you will completely miss what God wants to teach you. You will miss what He wants you to learn from the trial you’re going through.
Keep your focus on Him. The Bible says He is the author of our faith. He got us started and He is also the finisher of our faith. And He will see us through.
