Patience and Prayer

James 5:7-20

James 5:7–20 ESV

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. 12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. 19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Patience

Have you heard the saying, “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.”? I want to add one more unavoidable thing, waiting. It is nearly impossible to avoid some form of waiting in life. We must wait for food to cook, for the weather to change, or for the next holiday to arrive, etc. Waiting is part of life, and it can be a particularly blessed part of the Christian life. God commands his people to wait patiently upon the Lord. Waiting upon the Lord is one way we express our trust in Him.

Psalm 37:5–7 ESV

5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. 7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

The occasion of suffering typically inspires the attitude of prayer for rescue and escape. But, in these moments as well, James encourages us to patiently wait upon God and remain focused on the promise of Christ’s return. Matthew 24:30 Just like the patient farmer confidently plants the seed and waits for the sun and rain to come and bring a harvest, we too must wait in anticipation of God’s promises in Christ. Christ will return one day. He commands believers to establish this in their hearts, which is a term that implies the act of determination and resolution. James is confident that Christ will return at any moment. This promise stands true today. We are closer than the days of the past. So don’t be caught off guard. Are you ready? If the thought scares or worries you, be not afraid. Just be ready.

Illustration of Afghanistan - Biden knew of the coming change - but admitted it happened quicker than assumed.

Problems with Patience

There are some problems with waiting. We can become impatient and do things out of impulsive disobedience.

Grumbling about other believers: to complain, vocally indicating pain, discomfort, or displeasure in an inarticulate manner. In relationships such as marriage, people can often complain about the other person until an argument erupts. Unfortunately, the complaints are often over more minor issues that are used to cover up deeper issues that need to be resolved. Seek to solve a problem rather than to win an argument.

Swearing deceptive oaths: to promise solemnly, usually invoking a divine witness, regarding your future acts or behavior; often including penalties for failure to keep the oath. Jesus knew of this tendency among people at the time. To make a promise more believable, some people deceptively swore an oath by picking a religious item instead of God. (earth, Jerusalem, etc. Matthew 5:33-37) By doing this, they would not incur any serious consequences for failure to keep their oaths. James encourages believers to be people of their word. Christians ought to be reliable with the words they say. In moments of impatience, we can carelessly make promises that we do not intend to keep. Keep your words simple.

Worthless suffering: We may be tempted to conclude that any level of suffering we must endure is just a waste. But God assures us that our patient endurance is not a waste. When we consider the life of saints like Job, we know that the story, which looks like it is marked by pain and suffering, moves into a more extraordinary story of God’s mercy and compassion. God can bring about His blessing even through the most challenging and complicated instances.

Prayer

Along with encouraging patient waiting, James encourages believers to love each other through the fellowship of worship, prayer, and confession. Do you recall how you felt when you awoke this morning and prepared yourself to join the worship service today? Were you excited, tired, discouraged, or even upset? So often, we can come to worship with joy or burdens. And we often don’t want to appear too grumpy, so we put on “a happy face” so that people will not notice our problems or pain. James never imagined church to be a place where we pretend to be something we are not. The church will be filled with a variety of emotions. Not everyone is ready to sing a happy song of praise. Sometimes a lament of sorrow is more soothing to the heavy heart. James suggests that the church can participate in both extremes of joy and suffering together. So remember that we all will feel some of these extremes at some point in our journey with Christ.

Praying for healing should not be uncommon for the Christian church. But what are we to make of the remarks regarding sin and sickness? Looking at the gospels, we discover many instances where people were healed, and their sins are forgiven. Luke 5:20 This reference is not to assume that all sickness is caused by sin, John 9:1-3, but that we must not conclude that health is only for physical and not spiritual. We are spiritually dead until we are made alive by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We must not forget that our hearts need to be regularly evaluated and renewed before God. Psalm 139:23. How do we practice confession? Illustration of the small men’s group. The term "confess" implies admitting a sinful deed. The believer needs to acknowledge their sin and recognize that they will often need to admit they have failed. In our world today, admitting your failures is a sign of weakness, but before God, the contrite heart is the path that leads to His mercy. From the context, the sins that are to be confessed may relate to the illness at hand. Confess your sins when necessary and confess them to mature believers who will support you in your repentance before God. Confession opens the path of God’s amazing grace of forgiveness.

Along with the mutual confession, James encourages believers to take the opportunity to help those who are weak or wandering from the faith. We ought to do so because we are not so strong at times and may wander ourselves. If we keep our minds humble, we will remember that we restore people because it is God’s good desire for people to come back to Him.

Prayer is not done by those people with positions but for anyone who takes the posture to pray.

The Family of God

As we conclude our study in James, we ought to recognize James' concern for the church community. He uses the term “brothers” (adelphos) at least fifteen times. The term implies that both men and women in Christ form the family of God so that we can truly call each other ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ in the Lord. Even though we have a gender, ethnicity, and particular DNA, those aspects of our lives are secondary to our primary identity. Through Jesus Christ, we are brought into a family that is eternal and gets its identity from God. This is the one family that eternally matters.

First, ask yourself if you have truly entered into this family? There is only one way in. It is through Jesus Christ’s death upon the cross that we are given forgiveness of our sins. So we repent and place our faith in Christ.

John 1:10–13 ESV

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

It can be true that some people who attend a Christian church may not be children of God. My grandfather was one of them at one time. He was a good father and husband that brought his family to church, but he had yet to repent and believe. He finally did one day. Some people may not want to admit that they need God and need to repent and believe. But until they do, they will remain on the outside with God waiting for them to open their lives to Him. So don’t delay or put off what you know you should do today regarding your life in Christ. And if you are in the family of God, are you busy with the Father’s good desires?

Secondly, for those who are children of God, ask yourself what your honest opinion of the church is. Let’s face it, the church is in constant need of God’s guidance, correction, and mercy. The church should not be viewed as a social club where we put on our best version of ourselves to impress others. The church is more like a hospital where those who are ill come to receive the healing power of the Great Physician and be comforted by the humble family of nurses called the Family of God. Unfortunately, gathering a group of people in need of grace can be difficult, but at the same time, it can be glorious. If you have been hurt by ungodly and unbiblical treatment from other believers, don’t stay away from the family of God too long. You are needed, and you need the family. We are better together in Christ.