This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Hi and welcome you to day two of our look through James chapter five in daily drive time devotions. We're going to start a look today at what James has to say about patience. As we start this look I want to ask you a question, where's your boiling point? At what point do you move from as cool as ice to beginning to bubble to then letting off steam? Maybe you have preschoolers. Is your boiling point a little bit of noise in the house? Is your boiling point food on the kitchen walls or a marathon crying in the night or having to change the twelfth diaper in the last fifteen minutes? Where is the point where you lose patience or how about your car? Do you blow your gasket when your car does? When you look at your daily life and the things you and I have to deal with in daily life, whether it's your work or your school or your family, where's the point where you feel like I've just lost my patience? I'm losing it. The good news in the book of James chapter five is that you and I can bubble over with joy instead of boiling over in anger. God can do something different in our lives. Our boiling point can be changed. Now it will require a change of heart that only God can work, but it can be changed. As we look through James chapter five verses seven and eight, he begins to talk to us about this. Here's what he has to say, "Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. " Now as James talks about being patient here, he uses a word that has one meaning behind it is long-suffering. It's one of those words when you look at the meaning behind it, it explains the meaning behind it. To be patient is to be long-suffering. And this particular word patience that he uses in verse seven, it usually points to patience with people. We talk about quick-tempered people and we talk about even-tempered people. God can go one better. He talks about long-tempered people, long-suffering people. People who have been given the quality to put up with irritations. To put up with difficult people. To put up with real people and the realities of everyday life and all of it. To be patient. To have God's kind of patience. We look at this word patient. I don't think most of us think, "Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great if the attitude of patience could be a part of the way that I face everyday life? " And James is saying, "It can. It can. " And he gives us some simple, practical truth, inspired by God's Spirit, for how faith works, which is the theme of the book of James we've been looking at these last four weeks and now in our fifth week. How faith works to give us patience. The first thing he tells us here is this. Plant patience in truth. Truth results in patience. How does patience grow in my life? It is true. There's no doubt that some personalities are more patient than others, but there's a lot more to it than that, because we all have our boiling point. We all have that point where we're not patient any longer. And some people, whatever their personality, they seem to have this inner source of patience. Now, I'd like to say that having Jesus Christ in your life automatically guarantees that patience, but you know that's not true. You've seen it in your own life, and I've met some pretty impatient Christians over the years. God gives us the power, but I have to plug into that power. That power that he gives for patience, and I plug into that power by trusting in what he's told us to be true. Patience is planted in truth. I need God's truth to help me to be patient in everyday life. You want to be more patient in the circumstances of life that have been getting to you lately? You want to plant patience where it will grow in your life? Here are two powerful truths to get a hold of. Number one, the Lord is coming, and number two, the Lord is caring. James talks about those two truths in these verses. First, the Lord is coming, so be patient. Patience. Patience is learning to live with the Lord's timing. When the timetable is all yours, it is amazing how impatient you and I can get. But James here emphasizes that the timetable of every life, every single life, is in his hands. Patience in my life, in your life, it's always strengthened. See if you agree with this. It's always strengthened when there's an end in sight. I can be more patient on a long journey when I know it's almost over. When there's an end in sight, patience is empowered. The Bible here says you can be patient because the coming of Jesus Christ is near. Now, I know many of us look at that and think, wait a minute, weren't these words written 2,000 years ago? How could he say Jesus Christ's coming is near? It wasn't near. He hasn't come for 2,000 years. Here's the truth of the New Testament. Jesus Christ's coming was near then, and it's near now. And it's been near every moment of the last 2,000 years. The idea of near here means at any moment. At any moment Jesus could come again. I don't know if it's going to be today or tomorrow, or if it's going to last for another dozen years. I don't know exactly when Jesus is going to come, but I know that it's near, that he could come at any moment. So I live my life in the light of that truth and that truth that it's his timetable, not my timetable. That truth empowers patience in your everyday life. That truth empowers you to do what James talks about here. Be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. Those words stand firm. They point to a solid heart, to the kind of person who has the endurance to wait when they should and the courage to move ahead when they should. You stand firm. Patience is not lethargy, it's not doing nothing. Patience is knowing that God has a plan for your life and wanting, desiring to live out that plan, but knowing that it's going to be lived out on his timetable and not your timetable. You want to be patient? One of the truths to hold onto is Jesus Christ is coming again. It could be at any moment. And a second truth to hold onto is this, the Lord is caring. As we go down through these verses the next few days, we're going to find that these verses tell us that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. You want to increase your patience 100-fold? Remember this simple phrase, "God is patient with me. " God is patient with me. Exodus 34, 6 says, "The Lord is compassionate and a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. " Second Peter 3, 9 says, "The Lord is not slow about keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. " Why doesn't Jesus come again right now? Why doesn't he just end all the evil in this world right now, just get it done with? Because he's patient. He knows there's still more people to come to him. And God is willing to put up with, to face, to grieve over the evil in this world much more than I ever would, because he understands it better than I ever would. God is able to allow the evil in this world to still be there, because he knows there's still people left to come to him. And so he is patient, not wanting anyone to perish. God is caring. God is patient with me. God is patient with my sins. God is patient with my mistakes. God is patient with my selfishness. God is patient with me. And when you come to grips with how patient God has been with you, you begin to loosen your grip on the attitude of impatience in your life. How do I begin to get a hold of patience? First of all, I plant patience in truth. But there's a second thing James talks about in these verses. It's down to verse 9. "I keep patience in my speech. " In verse 9, James says, "Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you'll be judged. The judge is standing at the door. " It's amazing how grumbling, which is essentially voicing an attitude of impatience, how grumbling not only makes me more impatient, but everybody around me impatient. You think that talking about it, saying, "Oh, it's terrible. Here's why I'm impatient," somehow it would be venting and I'd be better, but it doesn't work that way. No, when I grumble, actually it makes it worse. It multiplies my impatience. Grumbling spoils patience in my life. The more you grumble, the worse you feel. I know they say a squeaky wheel gets the grease, and you might get some attention from your grumbling, but the question is, what's it doing to your heart? Grumbling turns you into a bitter, discouraged, impatient people. Why? Because grumbling is the exact opposite of praising. And the moment you start grumbling, you stop praising. And the moment you stop praising, you open your heart to a flood of irritation and impatience. So you keep patience in speech instead of grumbling and praise God. You tell God how grateful you are for what He has done in your life. There's nothing better you can do for your patience than to tell God how grateful you are for who He is and what He's done. In fact, as we pray together today, that's exactly what I'd like us to take a few minutes to do. Just in an attitude of prayer, talking to God, say to Him, "Jesus Christ, here's what I'm grateful for. It's so easy for me to get caught up in what's not happening or how slowly something is happening or how I wish it were happening differently. " And those things are still true. But Jesus, it's also true that you're at work in my life, that you love me, you've given me new life. It's also true that you brought blessings into my life that I never could have expected, never could have deserved. So I take a moment right now to tell you I am grateful, grateful for your love. Thank you, thank you Jesus, for your patience with me. In your name I pray, amen. Well join us tomorrow. We're going to talk some more about how God gives us this gift of patience, this gift that we so deeply need in our daily lives.