Blessed are the Steadfast

Tree in leaf in the park

"Dad's coming" gives hope or dread depending on the type of day you've had, doesn't it? If you have been frustrated trying to get something to work, hearing "Dad's coming" is hope. If you've been misbehaving, "Dad's coming" is a dread. It doesn't matter when in the day this is said, hearing those words will have their intended effect immediately. I remember getting a lego robot set one year and I had put almost all of it together, however, I thought I had turned the page on the manual only to discover I had built, after a day's frustration, two left legs. And now it was time for bed. But Dad was coming home. I woke up the next day to find my lego robot—standing—on the kitchen table. All was set right. 

Now, most of us have much bigger problems than a lego robot with two left legs (although, kids, I do still see how this as a big problem for your worlds, so blessed are you), so do the recipients of this letter. However, the letter is invoking a much more powerful Being than my dad. James is telling us that the Lord, Jesus Himself, is on the way. 

At the end of the book, James is coming back to where he began, be steadfast under trial for the reward is great for those who wait. So what does this waiting and steadfastness look like? What does it not look like? How can we keep the motivation to wait when it really drags on? These are the questions that James will answer for us today. We will consider the answers to these questions under two headings Be patient, because Jesus is returning and Don't grumble, because Jesus is near. 

Be patient, because Jesus is returning

What does patience look like?

Instead of giving us a list of points of what patience looks like, he gives his audience a picture they would be very familiar with, a farmer. We have a lot of gardeners in our midst, so this illustration works well for us, too. The farmer plants his plants and there isn't really anything that he can do to make the fruit pop up faster. My children love the books called "Frog and Toad," and there is one where Toad wants to grow a garden like his friend, Frog. He isn't a gardener, though. He puts the seeds in the ground and is surprised when they don't pop up immediately. He speaks to the seeds saying, "Ok, seeds, start growing." It doesn't work. He reasons that they can't hear him because they are buried in the ground, so he shouts at them. The rest of the story caries on with all the other antics that he gets up to to try to get them to grow, only to discover that gardening is indeed hard work. He doesn't ever put together that all that extra carrying on didn't make the seeds grow faster at all. 

We can be like Toad in our lives. We worry about other seeds and are willing to try anything, even something sinful, to make it grow, and grow right now. We try to get our kids in line by being angry. We try to get our spouse to do what we want through manipulation. We try to ease our suffering by numbing our minds with everything from a little too much to drink to sexual escapism with the internet and social media. 

None of those things grow the seed. Not only does it not work, but we are wasting all kinds of time and making ourselves sad for nothing. It feels productive only because we are moving. It doesn't seem to matter that we are moving in circles. 

James has been telling us to be doers of the word, and sometimes the best way forward is stopping. As one commentator mentioned, there is a time for the farmer to be plowing and planting, but the time comes when it is time for patience. Once you have done what can be done according to the Word, it is time to wait. Some of you are doing that with your health. You've tried everything, and all that can be done is waiting. You've taught your children everything you can, and beyond praying for them, it is time to wait. 

This waiting isn't fatalism or passivity but obedience. It is recognizing where your limits are, and where God is going to step in. He is the one who sends the rain. The Jews got this lesson loud and clear with Elijah back in 1 Kings 16-18. King Ahab worshiped the false god of farming and fertility, Baal. That's running in circles. Lotta activity, not progress. To make this point Elijah then prayed to God for it to stop raining. And it did for three years until Elijah prayed NOT to Baal but to God and the rains arrived. The Lesson? Don't court sinful means for your needs. Anger won't shape your children's souls. Manipulation and lies won't build a marriage. Obedience to God's will as laid out in Scripture does. 

So what does patience look like? It looks like obedience to God's will in his word. It is working hard to be doers of the Word, which includes waiting for Him. James gives us a couple of commands in this passage. He tells us to be patient (v7) and establish our hearts (v8). The first word is another way of saying, "wait." You are waiting for the Lord to act, as we've seen. The second word "establish your hearts" is another way of saying, "steel your resolve." One scholar pointed out that this word comes up in Jesus' life in Luke 9 when he sets his face towards Jerusalem. He knows he is going to die. But he settles in his heart that that is what he is going to do and carries on step by step towards and through that goal in faithfulness to the will of the Father. It isn't whining at any hardship but neither is it prayerlessness. Jesus praying that the cup would pass from him isn't faltering, precisely because the next word was "not as I will but yours be done." His resolve to fulfill the Father's will was strong not because he was never emotionally moved, but despite emotions to the contrary, He carried on. That's patience. That's an establishment of heart. You will need both, because there are a myriad of temptations to do otherwise. 

What does patience not look like? Or, what is a good test for how patient you really are? How often do you grumble against people? 

Don't grumble, because Jesus is near. (v.9)

One commentator put it this way, "James is perceptive. The pressures that lead to his call for patience (James 5:7-8) also create internal tension, and it is our sad tendency to speak in anger and haste when under pressure...It is typical of James to point out that a disordered heart leads to a disorderly tongue." (Doriani, 181). Ouch. Once again James shows us that what comes out of our mouth is a revealing of what is really in our hearts. They are connected, no matter how much we wish they weren't. Another commentator said, "Grumbling is the opposite of patience and thus also is a mark of unbelief." 

How is grumbling the opposite of patience and a mark of unbelief? Grumbling, even when directed at our fellow human beings, is something that God has never liked. This is because complaining about other people is ultimately complaining against God. After all, who else is in control of those people? Remember when the Israelites were complaining against Moses? In Exodus 16:2 it says that the people were grumbling against Moses and Aaron because of their food situation. The Lord promises to provide, and then we get to verse 8 "because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.” When we grumble we say, "God, you are running my life wrong!" That isn't waiting. That isn't patience. That isn't steeling your resolve to follow God's plan. One commentator points out that we think of this as a minor sin, but clearly God doesn't. Israelites died over grumbling (Numbers 11:1). 

Those things we mutter under our breath so no one hears them isn't patience. That's just fear of what they would do if they heard us. Standing there looking calm while exploding on the inside isn't patience. It isn't resolved to live the life that God gives you. 

How do we become patient?

James gives us a couple pointers. One, look to the prophets who suffered patiently, and now we called them blessed. It actually is possible. Look at Job, James tells us. In the first two chapters, Job demonstrates unbelievable patience. Now, the next thirty or so chapters we see Job complaining a lot, but what shut his mouth? A vision of God. This is the man who lost property, personal health, and all of his children for no reason that he can see. He has fended off every argument that his "friends" advance against him telling them in chapter 21:5 to lay a hand over their mouth. In other words, "Shut up." And yet, when God appears, giving no explanation for why all of this happened beyond, "I'm God and you're not," Job does what? Chapter 40:4-5 "I lay my hand on my mouth." I'm shutting up now. 

James points out that we have the end of Job's story. God was gracious and merciful in the end. He restored all that he had. 

We are waiting on the same God. We stand in a world that has been completely wrecked by sin. Jesus knows that. He's experienced that. He died for that. Yet He rose again as the preview of what will happen for the rest of the world. Yet the end of the story is still Jesus will return and set all right. Do you believe that? Are you the kid in the backseat on a long trip who groans at every stop for gas? Or do you believe that Dad is coming, and He has a great end for you? 

Application

How do you be patient? You specifically told the kids to be careful with the cup, but they jumped off the couch with it and sprayed the living room—again. He's home from work late—again. She's angry but won't tell you why—again. 

Step one: Pause. You know what you want to say. You know what you want to think! But you stop. Wait a minute. Ask yourself, "What has God said about this?" For the kids, discipline rebellion. For the spouse, honest conversation. Did that, didn't work. Ok, it's time to wait for God, and move to step two. 

Step Two: Preach. Preach to yourself what God did through the prophets who trusted in Him. Preach to yourself what God did for Job in the end. Preach to yourself what God has promised you. 

Step Three: Plod. Clean up the milk. Talk it out. Love your family the way Christ loves you with grace and mercy. Do it for years not because that's what works but because that is what God has willed whether it turns out the way you want or not this side of heaven. 

I don't promise an easy life, because God doesn't. I do promise, however, that eternal life for good is on it's way, because Dad's coming. He's going to put it all together for good.