Happy first Saturday of the new year!! I hope everyone is doing well. I think we have had a very good start to 2026 and I am sure hoping that 2026 just keeps rolling along. It has already started hard for some of my friends and I am praying daily that things ease up soon for them.
I am finally back to finishing James! And today we are talking about James 5: 7-11. And something most of us need more of but all of us are afraid to ask. Patience. Do you ever think about how much time you spend waiting? How many times does that bring us stress? Little things like waiting in line at Walmart ( or Kohls can be worse!), waiting in traffic, waiting for a check to come in the mail, waiting to hear about a job, waiting to hear a diagnosis. We all spend a lot of time waiting and unfortunately, that is part of life. How we handle that wait though is a part of who we are in Christ. So, let's dive in. I am back to using my HEAR method as I feel it just really gets the verse really looked at.
Verses 7-8
Highlight = Be patient. Explain = Do you ever notice God doesn't use many "except ins"? He puts it plain and simple, we are to be patient period. I will admit, it is not one of my strong points either but we have to learn to accept God's timing and the more we relax and do that, the better off we are. Apply: As many of you know, my son Robert has had a rough few months on the job front. He lost his job that he liked but he had so much baggage from everything that happened with the alcoholism that he constantly felt under a cloud. He has had a friend who he worked with at his very first job that had since bought his own shop and had asked Robert numerous times to come to work for him. When Robert lost his job, he called that friend and found out that it might take a while, but he would find him a place. Well, Robert needed a paycheck so he went in search of another job and found it. This place promised the moon but didn't quite even have the rope to lasso it, but it was a paycheck. We actually even named the place Purgatory on our Life360, because we knew it was something Robert (all of us really) was just going to have to be patient and wait it out. Robert started that new job on Monday. Tears are coming to my eyes just thinking about this. I have not seen him this happy in years. I watched Robert turn this over to God, pray about all of it, and instead of asking God why Purgatory had to be so bad, he kept focus on the day he would get to go to his dream job. It was very much worth the wait. Respond: Lord, help us be patient when things seem bad and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel but it isn't coming fast enough (if it was coming fast, it truly might be a train, lol).
Verse 9
Highlight= Don't grumble against one another. Explain= Isn't this something we see that goes hand in hand with a lack of patience? The heavy sighs and people talking under their breath in a long line? The honking cars in a traffic jam? The thoughts you have about the person who is supposed to be sending a check, or the mail system? Having to practice patience can sometimes bring out the worst in us. Apply = I was in Terre Haute a week before Christmas, and in Kohls, I had Mom with me but had picked up a few things - ironically, I was there because I had ordered a gift that I really wanted to present the next day and it was delayed, so I decided to go to Kohls and get something else. I had picked up a few other things and got in a very, very long line. People were complaining and I was seeing myself thinking the same things. I had sent Mom to the front of the store, hoping she could find a bench or something, which she did, but I moved about 3 feet in 15 minutes and finally felt myself losing patience. So, I laid down the stuff and I left. For one thing, I measured the cost of waiting, what it was doing to my time in the day, what it was doing to my mom and what it was doing to my mental health and decided the best thing for all was for me to calmly walk away and I did. Somethings are definitely worth the wait, some things are not, but what we want to remember is we are salaried employees when it comes to our Christianity. We are never "off the clock" and I don't want to willingly put myself in a situation where I tarnish my testimony. To some, not waiting did that, to me, not making my mom sit for an hour, wasting an hour of our time together, I made the right choice. I was a little upset when I got to the front and seen they had one checkout open, but that was no longer my problem. Protecting my character and sanity was. Respond = Lord, may you always remind me who I am. When I am losing my patience, please help me not take it out on someone else, usually that person is just as stressed as I am and if they aren't showing it, maybe it is because they are finding grace in you at that moment. I can not imagine what that one checker was hearing and going through, possibly because they were the only one who showed up for work that day. Help us always remember the other person's feelings too.
Verses 10-11
Highlight = take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Explain = Did you ever notice that the very people who wrote down God's inspired words, and foretold events to the people really had to have a lot of patience (and FAITH!) to keep going? Let's think about this: of course, Jonah spent three days in the belly of a fish, and then God gave him a vine to shade him and then killed it. Ezekiel's wife died as part of God's prophecy, Daniel was thrown into the lions, and the list goes on. God's prophets were not protected from pain, they were often chosen for it. On a regular basis they faced loss, loneliness, public rejection, fear and emotional exhaustion yet God repeatedly showed presence, purpose, patience and vindication. Apply = God never promised us all sunshine and roses. He promised us eternal life, in a place where there is no sorrow, no tears, no traffic jams, no long lines. Just like Robert waiting on his dream job, we are waiting on our dream lives and it is not here on this earth. That being said, God put us here first for a purpose and he truly wants us to be happy while we are here. He wants us to have joy, which as I said last week, is truly only found in Him. And then, I am going to throw in Romans 5:3 "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope. I will never forget being at a Mother-daughter banquet when I was probably a tween or early teen and Barb McCoy speaking about "Don't ask for more patience" because it can bring us problems to solve that makes us have more patience. Something that has stuck with me all these years. Respond = Lord, help me remember that your timing is perfect and I am to wait upon You. I know some of the greatest people in the Bible had to suffer greatly but they persevered and the end result was lives brought to you and their eternal reward of Heaven.
As we start the new year, I hope you get to do everything you set out to do. I was asked about New Year's resolutions yesterday. I don't make resolutions, I set goals. Last year, I set 16 goals for myself, I made all but 4 of them. A couple of them, I didn't even get started on, and they are back on the list this year but I focus on those 12 things I accomplished, some personal, such as getting the hot air balloon ride, or ziplining. Some were work related, I am now a ROMA trainer, and some house related, my basement and attic look much better, but they were all things I wanted to see done and there were days that my patience was tested. God was faithful though and I was able to look back and see what I did with the year and that is a good feeling. This year, there are 20 goals. My goals actually look differently than I thought they would 3 months ago. I had made a decision to go back to college and because of things going on in my life, God is telling me the timing isn't right, so it is back off the list. Maybe someday.
Happy Saturday!
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