If we are willing to be patient until the grace of God is made manifest, whether it takes nine years or ninety, it will be worth the wait. - Rebecca Pippert(1)
This morning’s message will addresses the need to develop our staying power. As you might have guessed, this is a sermon on patience. Our English word “patience” is derived from the Latin word patior meaning, “to suffer,” and the primary sense of the word means, “continuance and holding out.”(2) In other words, patience is staying power. It’s the ability to hold out in the midst of suffering and adversity.
Here in America we live in a society where much of the waiting in life has been eliminated. There are drive-through restaurants, drive-through liquor and tobacco stores, drive-in churches, and - believe it or not - drive-through funeral parlors. You’ve likely grown accustomed to hearing such terms as “on demand” and “express mail.” It’s no wonder people have a difficult time being patient whenever life circumstances require a wait!
There can be no doubt it was an American who once prayed, “Lord, grant me patience, and I want it right now!”(3) Many people seem to fail miserably at life because they have little patience. Allow me to provide an example of how impatience resulted in one man’s forfeiture of great success:
The snack food known as Jell-O turned one hundred years old in 1997. In 1897 Pearl Wait, the founder of Jell-O, wore several hats. He was a construction worker who dabbled in patent medicines and sold his remedies door-to-door. In the midst of his tinkering, he hit on the idea of mixing fruit flavoring with granulated gelatin. His wife named it Jell-O and Wait had one more product to peddle.
Unfortunately, sales weren’t as strong as he’d hoped, so in 1899, Pearl Wait sold his Jell-O rights to Orator Woodward for $450. Woodward knew the value of marketing so within just eight brief years, Wait’s neighbor turned a $450 investment into a $1,000,000 business. Today, not a single relative of Pearl Wait receives royalties from the 1.1 million boxes of Jell-O that are sold each day.(4)
Pearl Wait wanted to become a rich man from his invention of Jell-O, but his impatience prevented him from reaping the rewards. He wanted quick success, and when that success didn’t arrive fast enough, he gave up. However, if he had just persevered for another eight years like Woodward, then perhaps he would have become a multimillionaire. What was Wait’s problem? The problem was that “Wait just couldn’t wait!”
There’s an old adage that says, “Good things come to those who wait.” Some believers just can’t wait, and that’s why they often experience failure whenever faced with trials, difficulties and times of spiritual dryness. They give up too soon because they lack staying power; and so, they miss out on many good things that God wanted them to have.
In our main text today, James speaks about the significance of patience. He provides some valuable insight into why believers sometimes fail at being patient, and he explains how to stay the course even when difficult life circumstances seem to go by at a snail’s pace.
Be Determined to Have Endurance (vv. 2-4)
The first thing that James taught believers was about their need to develop patience, and ultimately perseverance. He realized that patience is vital in maintaining the necessary faith to see the realization of God’s promises:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2-4).
The first insight we should note is how James emphasized “when” you fall into various trials; he didn’t say “if” you fall into trials. For example, God informed the prophet Isaiah, “I will be with you . . . when you walk through the fire” (Is 43:2). It is indeed a fact that we are going to face trials in life. The only thing God promises is that He will be “with” us during our trials. He doesn’t promise that the Christian life will be one of great ease.
We must come to realize that we will face trials; and though it’s not easy, we must be determined to persevere joyfully. We can be joyful in knowing that God will use our trials to mold our character and conform us to the image of His Son. Paul de Rapin said, “Strength often increases in proportion to the obstacles imposed upon it.”(5)
Trials will serve to make us “perfect” and “complete” in character (Jas 1:4), as James inferred. Once our character is molded, then we will be lacking nothing. I understand the phrase “lacking nothing” to mean that we will finally know how to wait on the Lord’s timing; and waiting on God’s timing will enable us to receive the fullness of life that God intends.
If we will make the Lord our sole focus then we will be lacking nothing in a spiritual and provisional sense. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mt 6:33). Our life will overflow with God’s intended provision and abundance if we’ll allow our trials to mold us into the image of Christ.
The key to enduring trials and receiving what God wants is patience. The Greek word for “patience” in this passage is hypomone which, according to Warren Wiersbe, can also be translated as “endurance.”(6) It’s been stated, “Endurance is patience concentrated.”(7) Gerald Stevens, in the Biblical Illustrator, says that writers used the Greek word hypomone to describe military action:
A special detail of [the finest] troops was left behind to hold a position against the enemy while the main force attempted a flanking maneuver. The troops left behind were in a situation of hypomone.
These troops were not passively resigned to fate. They had not given up. In fact, these troops were chosen precisely because they were least likely to give up. Thus, hypomone was not about being passive, resigned, or giving up; hypomone was about strength under stress, or staying power.(8)
Thomas Lea, in the Holman New Testament Commentary, says that “patience” is “perseverance, endurance, or stamina,” and that it’s “staying power that believers can have because they trust their God.”(9)
Staying power and endurance are highly stressed in this passage. Some people tend to view endurance as “survival,” or just hanging on until the storm passes by; however, endurance is more than just survival. Survival is passiveness and a concern only for one’s own welfare. Endurance, however, is holding your ground with purpose. The soldiers were holding their ground with the purpose of defending one another.
Endurance in the Christian walk is standing our ground where God has intentionally placed us, and serving the Lord and others while we are there. Patience, therefore is not survival - patience is “thrival.” God wants us to thrive! He wants us to be content where we are, serving Him with gladness.
Avoid Being Wishy-Washy (vv. 5-8)
Next, James taught about the root cause of impatience, which is doubt; and doubt arises from a lack of clear vision. If we lose sight of our vision or purpose, we will become confused and desperate to take matters into our own hands. When doubt leads us to feeling pressed into a quick decision, then we will become wishy-washy, and uncertain of what we’re supposed to do. James warned against the spirit of doubt and double-mindedness:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:5-8).
Impatience is often the result of seeing other options and other roads down which we could walk. When James spoke of asking for wisdom, he was saying that if we feel tempted to become impatient and choose another path, that we should ask the Lord for guidance and direction, which comes through the wisdom of God.
We should always hold our position until God tells us to move. Sometimes when He tells us to hold our ground, we’ll doubt what He’s said and begin to waver. We will become confused, going back and forth between decisions, as a wave is tossed back and forth by the wind. James called this “double-mindedness” (1:8), which is the same as being “wishy-washy.” Warren Wiersbe elaborates,
The word [double-minded] suggests hesitation, [and] doubting. It literally means “two-souled.” Double-minded Christians are not stable during trials. Their emotions and their decisions waver. One minute they trust God; the next minute, they doubt God.(10)
In Matthew 14:22-33, there’s an interesting account. The disciples saw Jesus walking across the sea toward them, and they believed they were seeing a ghost. When they finally realized who it was, then Peter asked if he could walk on the water to meet Him. Jesus then commanded Peter to get out of the boat, and so he stepped out and began walking on the water! However, when he saw the wind and the raging sea, he wavered in his faith and began to sink.
Jesus stretched out His hand and caught Peter, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Mt 14:31). In His statement, “the Greek word for ‘doubt’ suggests the idea of trying to go in two different directions at once, or of serving two different masters simultaneously.”(11) Peter couldn’t focus on both Jesus and the raging storm at the same time; and the lesson here is that if we become double-minded, then we will sink spiritually and possibly drown out the good plan that God has for our life.
Jesus has more to say about this matter. In Matthew 6:24, He stated, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” The word “mammon” could be derived from the Aramaic word mamona meaning, “wealth or profit.” However, it could also stem from the Babylonian word mimma meaning “anything at all.”(12) Therefore, Jesus could have been saying that “you cannot serve both God and ‘anything else’ you wish.”
We can’t serve both the Lord and our own desires, for we will wind up idolizing our own plans and despising God’s good intentions for our life. Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every house divided against itself will not stand” (Mt 12:25). If we’re divided in our loyalties, being double-minded, then we can never hope to stand firm or have staying power; and we will miss out on what God wants for our life.
Doubting is double-mindedness. The word “doubt” is defined as “to stand in two ways . . . implying uncertainty in which way to take . . . [and] being anxious, through a distracted state of mind, and wavering between hope and fear.”(13) Os Guinness, in his book entitled In Two Minds, says,
To believe is to be “in one mind” about accepting something as true; to disbelieve is to be “in one mind” about rejecting it. To doubt is to waver between the two, to believe and disbelieve at once and so be “in two minds.”(14)
It’s much better to stay put where God has told us to stand than to doubt Him, for when we doubt we are divided in our mind. Does the word “insanity” ring a bell? Being divided in one’s mind is tormenting. It’s a feeling of being torn apart, as though we’re suspended in a constant state of flux, living simultaneously in both hope and despair. Be forewarned that doubting the Lord not only leads to missing His will, but it leads to emotional and spiritual problems as well.
When Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he urged the people who were there to serve God instead of Baal, and he asked them, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kgs 18:21). Whenever we’re faced with other options and other roads down which we desire to walk; we need to ask ourselves this question: “How long will I falter between two opinions?”
Faltering between two opinions is nowhere near to being patient and having endurance. The Bible says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb 12:1-2a). If we will become determined to run the race that God’s chosen for us, then we’ll find the endurance and strength we need from the Lord, and we will continue across the finish line.
However, if we choose to run down our own path instead, and fail to look solely to Jesus; then we won’t be able to run at all, but we’ll limp helplessly along and even stumble. The Amplified Bible renders Elijah’s question as this: “How long will you halt and limp between two opinions?” (1 Kgs 18:21). Doubting will result in limping helplessly along through life without any direction.
If we want to reap the benefits of patience and trusting in God’s perfect plan, then we have to stop being double-minded and wishy-washy.
Time of Reflection
If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then I encourage you to stand firm and serve the Lord right where you are. Serve Him in your present geographical, occupational and even ministry-related location. Serve the Lord with the skills, talents and gifts that He’s given you. Be satisfied with where you are and with what God has provided, until He speaks to you and tells you to do otherwise.
Will you hold on to hope for the vision and promise that’s within your heart? Will you develop the staying power that comes from focusing only on God and His Son, Jesus Christ? Or, will you doubt the Lord and choose your own path? Remember, your own plans will only lead to confusion and missing out on God’s perfect will for your life. We read twice in the book of Proverbs, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25).
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” The only way we can break free of sin and run with patience is to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He will forgive us of our sins, grant us eternal life, and provide us the strength to face life’s challenges. If you are in need of some spiritual endurance in your life, then wish to I invite you to come know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord.
NOTES
(1) Rebecca Manley Pippert, Hope Has Its Reasons (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), p. 194.
(2) Noah Webster, 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language (San Francisco, CA: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2002).
(3) “Patience,” Webster’s 21st Century Book of Quotations (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1992), p. 196.
(4) Raymond McHenry, McHenry’s Stories for the Soul (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2001), p. 206.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament, in Logos Scholar’s Edition CD-ROM (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1992).
(7) Raymond McHenry, McHenry’s Stories for the Soul.
(8) Gerald L. Stevens, “Patience in James,” Biblical Illustrator, vol. 29, No. 4 (2003), p. 54.
(9) Thomas D. Lea, “James,” Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 1999), p. 258.
(10) Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament.
(11) Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew, The New American Commentary, vol. 22 (Nashville, TN: Broadman, 1992), p. 235.
(12) E. E. Ellis, “Mammon,” New Bible Dictionary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1991), p. 730.
(13) Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1995), p. 105.
(14) Os Guinness, In Two Minds (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1976), pp. 24-25.
