WONDERFUL THING IN THIS PASSAGE – The Lord Jesus is aware that some elements of your life are really difficult. And it bothers Him. He didn’t create you to struggle this hard or suffer this much. He’s longing for the day when He will pull you out of this fallen world into the life in heaven for which He made you – a life in which all the pains and limitations that are so vivid now will become just memories. And those brief, sad memories will be engulfed in an eternity of joys.
However, for a little while longer, He’s called you to live out your faith in this world of sorrow. It needs you. If it didn’t, He would already have taken you to heaven. There’s more good He wants to do through you, more people He wants to love through you, and more of His light He wants to shine through you.
So, He led James to write you this simple encouragement:
“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. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near” (Jas 5:7-8).
The farmer plows and plants and protects his fields even when the days are long and hot and many. He knows that God has a plan to bring the harvest. There’s nothing the farmer can do to rush it, so he toils on in patient hope. Eventually, in God’s time, the late rains will come, and all his labor will have been worth it. There will be plenty of “precious fruit.”
WONDERTUL THING IN OUR LIVES – Dear ones, God has planted good seed in you: His Spirit and His Word. And He has planted you in just the right ground to grow you into the plant He wants. You are or can be “the seed in the good ground – these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, produce fruit.” (Luke 8:15).
It may be tough right now, but you can keep going for a while longer. In fact, you can endure to the end. Hear James’s gentle urging: “See how the farmer waits…You also must be patient.” Decide today that you will fortify your heart, “because the Lord’s coming is near.”
Think about it: The Lord’s coming is not more than a few decades away for any of us. If He doesn’t come to take all of us by then, He will come to take you and me. And, for some of us, it could be even sooner – praise the Lord!
I believe that we can serve Him patiently until then.
