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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're studying James chapter 5 this week,
day 3 of our look through this chapter. Yesterday we began to look at patience
and some of the keys in the book of James for beginning to live a more patient
lifestyle, a more patient heart style.

Yesterday we looked at the need to plant patience in truth, that God's truth,
the truth that Jesus is coming and that Jesus is caring, helps us to be patient
in everyday life. We also talked about keeping patience in speech. When I turn
my words from words of grumbling to words of praising, it actually empowers
patience in my everyday life.

There's a third thing that James talks about here in these verses, beginning in
verse 7 and all the way down through verse 12. He tells us to learn patience
through example. We have to see patience in order to live patience.

That's what James is telling us in these verses. James helps us to understand
that patience is a virtue that is learned by example. In fact, he gives us three
powerful examples that could give you a doctoral degree in patience.

We talked about the first of these three yesterday when we read verses 7 and 8.
The first of them was the farmer. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield
its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains in verse
7.

The farmer. The farmer, when it comes to patience, what can you learn? What's
the number one lesson from the farmer?

I think it's this. God is in control. God's in control.

Accept the fact that you are not ultimately in control. The farmer has to accept
that. They're not in control of when the rains will come.

They have to wait. Farmers know they're not in control. They plant.

They don't let the fact that they're not in control keep them from acting. They
plant. But even in our most modern technology, in our most modern world, they're
not in control of the weather and the conditions that produce a good crop.

We need to accept that in our daily lives. When we accept that we are not
ultimately in control, we can stop expecting life to always sit up and take
notice when we crack the whip because it does not. Life doesn't always do what
you want it to do.

Your day doesn't always work like you wanted it to work. Have you noticed that
one? When we accept that we are not ultimately in control, we can stop trying to
take charge of other people's lives and program their life to make us feel
better about our lives.

I found the only way that I can accept that I'm not ultimately in control is to
accept the truth that God is. God is in control and to lean into that truth. The
farmer reminds us that God is in control.

James gives us a second example in verse 10, the prophets. Verse 10 says,
"Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets
who spoke in the name of the Lord. " The prophets, what's the main truth, the
main example that you learn in their patience?

The farmer was God is in control. The prophets, I think the main truth is God is
faithful. You've read through the Old Testament the example of prophets like
Isaiah or Jeremiah.

You read stories of people who were teaching the truth of God to people who
didn't want to hear it, teaching the truth of God to people who rejected it. In
Jeremiah's case, teaching the truth of God to people who tried to kill him, who
threw him into a well and hoped he'd die. But they continued to teach the truth.

Why were they able to be so patient? Because they realized that God is faithful.
People are not always faithful, but God always is faithful.

And so he says, "Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering,
take the prophets. " This word example that he uses here, it's from a word for
beautifully formed letters in a copy book. Students used to take these books
along with tracing paper and they'd trace over the letters in the book to learn
how to form those letters.

And we're challenged to trace into our lives these attitudes that these prophets
had. To learn patience by example, to let their example mark our hearts, to
trace it into the way that we live our daily lives. The Bible says that the
prophets endured and so the people considered them blessed.

You know what really touches a person's heart? Seeing somebody exercise patience
in the most difficult of circumstances. And none of us want to do that.

But when I read the stories of these prophets in the Old Testament, when I read
the story of a person we're going to talk about in just a minute, James' third
example, I realize that God can give strength into our lives, it's above and
beyond ourselves. Only God could do that. So he talks in these verses about
patience, about perseverance in our daily lives.

Now it's interesting, before we go on to talk about our third example, he does
use both of those words, patience and perseverance. Patience we talked about
yesterday, it means long-suffering and it usually has to do with patience with
people. The word perseverance is also used in these verses.

And perseverance, the idea of that word is to remain under. To remain under a
difficult circumstance. And usually the word perseverance has more to do with
circumstances than with people.

God tells us we need to do both. We need to be patient with people, we need to
persevere in circumstances. The Bible, when it talks about patience or
perseverance, it doesn't talk about perseverance in terms of waiting for
something to happen.

It talks about steadfast endurance while things are happening, while God is at
work, pressing on regardless of what will happen. That's what these prophets
did. They knew, they knew in their patience that sometimes the things that they
did would not have good results in their lives.

But part of their patience was the strength, the courage to do those things
regardless of what would happen. That's part of what perseverance is all about.
Perseverance isn't just hiding out, hoping something bad doesn't happen to you.

Perseverance is living out God's plan for your life, no matter what might happen
to you. There's a third example in these verses. Starts in the last half of
verse 11.

In fact, when I say the word patience, this may be the person in the Bible above
anybody else that you think of to exemplify the word patience. Here's what James
has to say, verse 11 and 12. You've heard of Job's perseverance and you've seen
what the Lord finally brought about.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. "Above all, my brothers, do not swear,
not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your yes be yes and your no,
no, or you will be condemned.

" Job, Job played in the Super Bowl of Patience and he won. You've read the
story of Job in the Old Testament. If you haven't, I encourage you to go and
read it.

It's a long book, but it's a powerful book about a man who lost everything. Lost
his land, his home, his family, his things, lost his health, and in all of it he
was patient in that he continued to trust God. When it comes to patience, he's
the ultimate in examples.

We still talk about that phrase, the patience of Job. Now remember, when Job
lost everything, he would not curse God. He cried, he yelled, he questioned, but
he never hated or cursed God.

He was patient because he trusted. The farmers in these verses are an example to
us of the fact that God is in control. The prophets are an example of the fact
that God is faithful.

Job is an example of the fact that God is good. Even in the evil that comes into
our lives, I can trust in the fact that God is good. In the end, the Bible says,
you've seen what the Lord finally brought about for Job.

In the end, God's goodness is what's shown through in Job's life. Yeah, you're
going to go through difficult times in this world. No doubt about it, but God is
good.

Life is hard. I like that Pam Thumb song. Life is hard, but God is good.

You can hold on to his goodness. That's what gets you through. That's what helps
you to persevere.

Everything that can happen in your life denies the goodness of God. Because God
has allowed evil for a time in this world does not mean he's not going to take
us to heaven. He will, where we will enjoy his goodness for all eternity.

Job is an example to us of that kind of patience in our everyday life. In verse
12, all of a sudden, James begins to talk about, "Brothers, don't swear, either
by heaven or by anything else. Let your yes be yes, or your no, no.

" Where does that come from? What does that have to do with patience? Some
people think he just sort of throws that verse in here because it needed to be
said, and it's a transition to what we're going to begin to talk about tomorrow
in prayer.

But I think it also ties to patience. Don't swear. Don't lie, he's saying here.

Don't swear by heaven or earth and say, "I promise it's going to happen based on
this. " There's the idea here of lying in a way that tries to push God's agenda
ahead. You see, when I get impatient, it's very, very tempting to lie.

So this verse is not talking about when it says, "Don't swear. " It's not
saying, "Don't use bad language. " It was a habit they had in that day of
swearing by God's creation to prove they meant what they said and to somehow
cause it to happen.

It's sort of a religious cross your heart and hope to die. And they turned it
into a way to get around the truth and to get what they wanted. You ever notice
that impatience makes you want to move things along?

And there's a temptation to lie so you can push things ahead a little. Maybe
it's just a little white lie, but I got to use it because I'm impatient. When
you're impatient, you're prone to lie.

And James' reminder here is be patient. You don't have to lie to push God to do
his best in your life. God is good.

He's at work for his best in your life. So as we pray today, at the end of this
two-day look at patience and perseverance, I want to encourage you to pray a
very simple and yet a very courageous prayer. Pray the simple prayer, "God, give
me patience.

Give me patience. " Now, it's a courageous prayer because God will work to
answer that prayer. One of the ways he works to answer that prayer is by putting
us in circumstances that cause us to need patience.

But remember, at the beginning of the book of James, we learn that patience is
what results in growth in my life, being more like Christ. So I can pray, "God,
give me patience. " In Jesus' name, amen.