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An Exposition on the Book of James Part 20

If you haven’t yet, please check out part 1 of this series. The ideas of the book of James are all centered around the idea of a perfectly forged faith that makes us perfect.

“Good things come to those who wait” is a very popular sentiment. Few things that a worth wile happen overnight. A baby being born takes over 40 weeks of steady growth inside a mother’s secure care, each day growing more cumbersome than the last, until the climax is reach. This point being the pangs of birth itself. The clock ticks slowly by in the early morning hours while contractions are growing in intensity. There are moments when it seems as if time has stopped completely. The event is all consuming, and little else matters. The next wave of pressure is eminent, and it is hard to believe the baby will ever come and the labor will stop.

It does stop; the child does emerge and cling to his mother. But shortly after baby arrives it becomes apparent the trial is not over. The wave begins again and usually more intense. There is no prize this time. No cute bundle of joy to hold. The reward is that it is over. Once the placenta has been birthed, the recover can start. But the trial has just begun. The Baby needs to be fed, he needs to be loved, and he needs correction. He will dump out drinks, pee on you, wake you at all hours of the night and scare you to death when he is bleeding profusely through his moth (ask me how I know). Then, twenty-some-odd years later, you will see him getting married and repeating the process. It doesn’t come easy, but it comes. Usually, the joy overshadows the grieve.

It is well established that God is outside of time. He knows the end from the beginning. You and I are absolutely dependent upon time. It is easy to pass the time when things are going well; but often, when we are in the thick of it, time seems to drag on. When God is allowing the trials of life to come upon us, he is not doing it to be cruel. God understands that the everything that bares the seed of eternity is bound to pass through the baptism of suffering*. What we need to bear in mind is the precious fruit that God will produce in us through this trail if we patiently endure the trial. If we patiently endure the trials that God allows to come upon us, he will allow all joy to be birthed into our life. As the farmer waits for the crops to mature, as the rancher waits for his cows to calf, as the laborer waits for his wage, we must wait on the Lord.

James 5:7-11 KJV

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

*Not a direct quote but a reference to words written by Ponnamal to her co laborer of Amy Carmichel.

S.T. 
Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me..."