Patient in Pain

Patience is Hard

Let’s see if you can relate to some of these scenarios I have heard other people struggle with:

You are pulling up to the McDonald’s drive through line and choose the shortest of the 2 lines, obviously it will be the quickest. But the person in front has evidently never been to McDonald’s before so they have to examine the entire menu and now the cars that got in line after you are already driving up to the window!

You are sitting down on the couch after a long, stressful day. Everything is done, cleaned, put away, and prepped for the morning. You are looking forward to watching a little Netflix as you decompress for the day. After choosing the app, it takes a couple extra seconds for it to open, which increases your heart rate just a bit. You find your show, click the button and all you get is the spinny wheel and the “loading” screen…the longer it take, the hotter your blood gets. What the heck is taking so long!!!

Today is Jan 2nd, the New Year is upon us. Do you have resolutions to lose weight and get in shape? It is easy to start off strong and motivated isn’t it? The first few days or weeks you feel good about things, even enjoy it a bit. But when you look in the mirror or see the numbers on the scale you think “well what difference is this making?” January 19th has come to be known as “Quitters Day”, as it is the day many of the resolutions made on Jan 1st come to and end as the impatience for rewards and results grows too strong to overcome.

I saw this definition of impatience in an article this week:

Impatience is a mental state triggered by the distance between where you are and where you want to be. - Leon Purton

That is spot on isn’t it?

We want to be eating our chicken mcnuggets, but we are still waiting in line.

We want to be enjoying the latest Yellowstone episode, but all we have is a loading screen.

We want to fit in the jeans from 3 years ago, but we are still using the same belt loop.

It is hard to be patient isn’t it.

It is especially hard to be patience in the middle of pain, trials, struggles and suffering.

James Recap

James is writing to a church that is scattered and struggling.

He is one of the main leaders of the early church, leading through a season that is riddled with persecution, as friends, family members, and brothers and sisters in Christ are being jailed, beaten, or even killed for the faith.

They are struggling to figure out how to stay together as a community, fighting over things that should not divide them.

James is challenging them to really examine their faith in Christ and ask the question: Does my life line up with my confession? Is my faith real or fake? Do my works show my faith?

Faithfulness and perseverance in trials really is the heart of this letter:

James 1:2–4 CSB

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

James returns to that theme in 5:7-11, though he really never left it.

A key for persevering in faith in the midst of trials is to “Be Patient”

James 5:7–11 CSB

7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door! 10 Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. 11 See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about—the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

Job as a powerful illustration

James ends this section using Job as an example to be followed.

He uses the word “blessed” to describe someone who remains patient (or endures) in trials. That same word is used by Job as he is hit with some of the most painful trials one could image.

I love that James chooses the story of Job to illustrate his point.

I believe he intended those reading to reflect on the story of Job after reading his letter. So that is what we are going to do today.

If James’s desire is to help us to patiently endure in the midst of trials of various kinds, what is required in order for us to be patient?

1) Patience requires UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.

James 5:7 CSB

7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

Patience requires us to understand and accept that WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL.

This section of James is full of analogies and illustrations. Here James points to a farmer waiting for His crops to grow.

It was necessary in the Mideastern world James was writing in for 2 seasons of rain to come in order for the crops planted to yield a good harvest.

The patient waiting of the farmer points to a very vivid and very serious reality, HE CANNOT MAKE IT RAIN.

If you have ever worked on a farm or even raised a garden you know how important water is for the growth of your crop.

This example is slightly missed on us today since we have technology that helps us get water artificially to our plants, but in the culture James was writing, they relied on rain. They were dependent on it, and they had NO CONTROL over it.

In your life you cannot control everything that happens, nor how everyone acts.

Sure there are things that are within our control, things we can influence for the better or the worse, but ultimately we are vastly limited in our power to control things around us.

What James is saying here is that if we are going to remain patient in trials and endure we have to surrender to the only one who really knows and has the power to direct things, God.

We see this vividly in the story of Job.

Job 1:1–8 CSB

1 There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3 His estate included seven thousand sheep and goats, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east. 4 His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice. 6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.” 8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

“Have you considered my servant Job?” Why would God offer up Job to be tempted and tried by Satan?

We could hypothesize all kinds of answers, but we really don’t know.

Job is a poetic book that is likely historical as well, so we have to be cautious to not go too far with God’s conversation with Satan. He doesn’t barter and scheme with Satan, even though He does allow Satan to influence the lives of His people.

I believe what we see here is a deeper, more profound agenda from God for Jobs life then what we could possess or even understand.

God has a reason for our trials.

He is allowing them for a purpose, using them in ways we cannot fathom and may never understand until we get to Heaven.

It is often in the heat of pain and trial that we grow, change, strengthen, and transform the most.

I think James wants us to shift our attention from what is happening TO us, to what God is forming IN us.

That requires us to surrender.

2) Patience requires CONFIDENT HOPE.

James 5:8 CSB

8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

Two times in these first 2 verses, James points to the return of Christ.

James has spoken a lot about the faithfulness of God to the promises He has made to His people.

One of the central promises is His impending return.

If you are going to be patient, you have to know what you are being patient for.

One of the reasons we find it hard to be hopeful and joyful in trials and struggles in life is because we have placed our hope in things that are drastically overvalued.

We hope in money, family, marriage, careers, retirement, hobbies, and all kinds of other endeavors that, when they fail us, and they alway do, leave us desperately hopeless and looking for something else to fill the void.

You see this in the previous passage. In the midst of suffering the people starting hording their stuff, living in excess, and selfishly ignoring and injuring the very ones they are supposed to love.

They had lost perspective and placed their hope in what they could attain or accomplish.

Jeremiah 2:13 CSB

13 For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves— cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.

Jeremiah’s words ought to convict us.

God is the fountain of living water, but we run to cisterns that are cracked and can’t hold water.

After Job loses his livestock, servants, his sons and daughters, and even lost his own health (boils and sores all over his body) his own wife comes to him and says:

Job 2:9 CSB

9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

But Job’s response is so powerful:

Job 1:20–22 CSB

20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. 22 Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.

Job believed that God was good and in control, even if his circumstances didn’t seem to line up.

Patience requires us to grasp a hold of a hope that is bigger than our struggles.

Even if we never escape the pain in this life, we can rest and find hope in know “Our dad is coming.”

3) Patience requires SELF-RESTRAINING KINDNESS.

James 5:9 CSB

9 Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door!

Patience in pain requires us to stay together, to be kind, compassionate, forgiving and forbearing.

Impatience will often lead us to selfishness, bitterness, angry outbursts, hurtful attitudes.

Hurting people often hurt people.

An injured animal is dangerous, even to those trying to help it.

Job’s 3 friends come to him in Chapter 2 and from Chapter 2 through Chapter 31 there is an exchange that basically is Job’s friends accusing Job of un-confessed or unrealized sin that is the source of his suffering.

Impatience in suffering can often lead us to bitterness, anger, or accusations toward others around us.

Job’s friends were trying to help, but they were listening to him.

If you read the words of Job, he is frustrated by them and even hurt by their accusations.

In the end, God is intent on punishing the friends because of their lack of compassionate care for their friend, but Job graciously asks God to spare them.

Patience requires that we are kind and compassionate toward others.

4) Patience requires HEALTHY FEAR.

James 5:9 CSB

9 Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door!

James is clear throughout his letter of the generous, compassionate, and gracious nature of God.

But he also wants us to know He a judge and he is righteousness.

God is not too big or too small for our questions, even the ones from frustration or despair.

But the pain of trials, coupled with impatience will often lead us to questions of God goodness and worth.

James, I believe, is calling us to not lose sight of who God is.

He is the sovereign, all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good creator and Lord.

Who are we to question His character or the purposes He is pursuing.

Job, after suffering and defending himself, he laments the days of his past when his body was healthy and his life filled with family and friends (Job 29:1-11).

Then he demands an explanation from God

Job 31:35–37 NLT

35 “If only someone would listen to me! Look, I will sign my name to my defense. Let the Almighty answer me. Let my accuser write out the charges against me. 36 I would face the accusation proudly. I would wear it like a crown. 37 For I would tell him exactly what I have done. I would come before him like a prince.

God answers Job in several long responses. Here is a quick snapshot

Job 38:4 CSB

4 Where were you when I established the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

Job 38:12 CSB

12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,

God is really good at answering questions with questions.

This might sound sarcastic, but God’s point is that neither Job or us are able to fathom the knowledge, power, and reach of God.

God’s perspective is infinitely broader, which means he may allow or orchestrate events that from one perspective look morally suspicious, or just plain wrong.

It’s impossible for any human to know such things or have such a perspective. This means all of our claims to evaluate God’s rule over human history are always limited, and will therefore fall short.

I don’t have a wide enough vantage point to accuse God of incompetence, and I never will.

God asks for trust, not understanding, and declares that His universe was created through his wisdom and everything that happens in it is for His purposes.

The story of Job, and James here in Chapter 5, invite us to trust God’s wisdom when we encounter suffering rather than trying to figure out the “reasons” for it.

To be patient and not simplify God like the friends or, like Job.

We are invited to honestly bring our pain and grief to God and to trust that he cares, realizing that he knows exactly what he’s doing.