Considering Patience

James 5:10

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Have you ever got to the point where you feel your patience is wearing thin? When you have taken just about all that you can take? Sometimes the ability to carry on seems harder than it’s worth. Your prayers go up but nothing comes down…

Consider Job – A man who had everything; a blameless and upright man in the eyes of God. Then Satan took it all. Job was distraught but his faith in God did not falter, instead he proclaimed, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord”.

Consider Abraham – A heir was promised and an heir was given but in-between patience was lost. Sarah’s faith wavered and she gave Hagar to her husband and they had a child, Ishmael. This was not God’s plan and Abraham had to wait patiently for another 14 years to receive the promised heir through Sarah.

Consider Simeon – A righteous and devout man to whom the Holy Spirit revealed “that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” We don’t know how many years Simeon waited but finally the day came when he was in the temple and Jesus was presented, by his parents, to the Lord. Simeon took the child in his arms saying, “you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation”. His patience was rewarded and he got to hold the Son of God. What a privilege.

So take comfort in patience. God will never give you more than you can bear. His promises will always be fulfilled. His word is truth.