November 6 - James 5: Be Patient Like That

Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master's Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time. (5:7-8)

This picture of farmers waiting for their crops to grow has stuck with me for days. No matter what they do, they have to wait on God's timing - for rains, for growth, for the harvest. I'm convinced that this is the view that God wants me to have regarding my own growth.

A common theme throughout my life is wanting to be someplace different than I am. Sometimes physically, but usually relationally, emotionally, or spiritually. When I was a child, I just wanted to be an adult. When I was a new Christian, I just wanted to be a mature Christian. With boyfriends, I wanted our relationships to be different than they were.

And now that God is stirring up awareness of sinful and unloving relational patterns in me, I just want to be magically fixed. I do want God to change me on the inside, but I find myself whining to God that I want it now. I feel very impatient with Him. I resist letting the Lord do His slow but sure work in me because I want to avoid any pain. {As if.} The pain of dying to self. The pain of rejection. The pain of significant relationships changing.

Instead of demanding my way from the Lord, He asks me to repent of my impatience and to yield myself to Him. The Word confirms that patience is what God desires for me. It's part of the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:23), which means there's no expectation of me manufacturing patience for myself.

As I yield my flesh to the Spirit, He will produce it in me, like God produces a harvest for the farmers.  I only need to stay strong and steady, patiently trusting the Lord with all that He wants to do in me.

Today I'm so grateful for my loving, gracious, beautiful God who sees me in my weakness and always moves toward me. He is gently patient with me, yet I can look back on years of His slow but sure work in me. I want to be patient like that.