Patience...Part Two

So, I was thumbing through my sermon note archives on love(which there have been a lack of sermons on for the past 2 years, at least). But there WAS a sermon on patience! (*hallelujah chorus*)

To fully understand what it means when the Bible says, "Love is patient", we need to really understand what patience is in the first place.

James 5:7-8--"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. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."
James 5:10-11--"As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."


It was not uncommon in Bible times for there to be a drought. This was a good way for James to explain "patience" to the twelve tribes. People were waiting for the Lord's return, and they were getting impatient. It's not like it had been 2,008 YEARS since Jesus had walked the earth. It hadn't been that long. They wanted Him to come back, and James kicked 'em in the pants by saying that they needed to be patient and wait on the Lord's timing.

Now, this didn't mean that EVERY time there was a drought, God would save the day and water the crops for them. Sometimes, they had to go through the lack of food, because God was trying to teach them something. All things work together for good for those that LOVE Him. ((Romans 8:28)) There's that word again: love. Let's keep going before we confuse ourselves...

In the next verse, he starts again, "You also, be patient." When a Bible author writes something more than once in a span of two verses, you should listen. After that, he continued to say that the prophets had to exhibit patience and so did Job. Do you guys REMEMBER Job? Holy cow!!! All of his friends told him to "curse God and die!"--including his own wife. But Job was patient, and his troubles passed because of that.

Dr. Brunson said "Patience is the ability to bear up under the ugliness of situation, the ugliness of circumstance, and the ugliness of people without becoming ugly ourselves." I think that that is a perfect explanation of patience.

When God tells us that "love is patient", He's telling us that there ARE times when we're going to have to be patient. In layman's terms...love is a battlefield. Not in the sense that you will constantly be fighting or going through a storm, but sometimes it will feel like it. Those are the times when we need to call on God to give us patience; and those are usually the times when we will be the most stubborn about asking for it. Don't be afraid to ask God for stuff. He said that anything you ask in His name's sake, He'll give it to you. ((John 14:13))

Whatever you do....DO NOT curse God and die. Because Job survived oozing boils, the death of his children, all of his SHEEP died (and the rest of his animals)...he sat on a freaking ash heap, for goodness' sake. Patience, for me, is not something I even think about. Ever. Really, I don't. In fact (you can ask my mom), yesterday, I yelled at the computer while writing my lesson on patience. I'm not a patient person...but right now...I'm learning how being patient saves you from a lot of pain. (Refer back to the Dentist's Office Blog...)


The last part of verse 11..."The Lord is compassionate and merciful." I'm sure that you've heard the cliche that "Good things come to those who wait." It's Biblical. We're supposed to wait on the Lord. ((Psalm 27:14--"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.")) Now, quick history lesson: when it says, "LORD" (in all caps), it means "to be". So, He was saying wait on the LORD who is "to be". (Guys, this is Psalms...before Jesus was born) So, Jesus wasn't even walking the earth, and David was telling everyone to wait on Him, because He'd give them strength. View it from a military standpoint. David had beaten the Philistines single-handedly. With a rock. And he pointed all the glory back to God. That's pretty impressive. Other people thought so too. David's God had given him a military victory! So, when David told them to wait on the LORD, people would be likely to believe him and do that, because they had seen what God had done with David, a stone, and a slingshot.

Go back to my candy analogy. Let's say you're not a little kid anymore, and you don't think you need your mom's money. You have your own. You're not allergic to nuts. You DO, however, need to wait for the clerk. You pick out your candy, and leave the store. You're taking something that's not yours. That, folks, is STEALING. ((Exodus 20:15)) It doesn't matter how ready you are to leave the store with that candy. It's not yours, and you don't have a right to take it. It's the same as Song of Solomon 4:7b--"Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." It's not our job to decide when it's time for us to be "in love". That's God's job. You may not see why you're not "in love" right now...but that's because of Ecclesiastes 3:11--"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." That's why we don't understand! Because it would turn your brain into mush!! God doesn't want your brain to be mushy...so just trust Him. (That's not easy either, but it's a whole 'nother lesson.)

In summary, love has to be patient because we make love hard.


Don't do that to love. ^^