Meditation
WAITING Dr. Joseph Stowell
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. James 5:7
Like everything else in Christian life, patience is learned spiritual art, perhaps one of the hardest ones to find active in our lives. Patience is the skill of waiting well, of yielding our timetables to others….to the Lord.
I like the term patient waiting because patience is nothing more than the art of learning to wait! Webster’s Dictionary agrees. For the word patient, it offers this definition: “The will or ability to wait.
And it’s not just waiting for others. Ultimately, it is about waiting for God. Waiting to experience answers to prayer, the realization of His promises, the cessation of trouble – and the list goes on. The psalmist encourages us to “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him….Wait on the Lord, and keep
His way, and He shall exalt you” (Psalm 37:7, 34 NKJV). Patience is about how much we trust God. The quicker we become antsy about life and our predicaments, the less we really believe that He is with us and in control.
The apostle James knew something about waiting – and not just waiting for something desired, but waiting on the Lord and trusting Him during times of intense adversity. In his letter to the scattered and persecuted Jewish Christians of his day, he used various forms of the words wait, patience,
and perseverance ten times. Besides these occurrences, the ides of patient waiting is woven throughout the book. It takes much patience, for example, to be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19)!
James was the right person to deliver a message of patient endurance in trial and patient waiting for the return of Christ. Because James was the half brother of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 13:55), some might have thought he would be eligible for special treatment. But James knew the reality of persecution, and he never tried to claim special privilege.
Instead, he identified himself simply as a “servant” of Christ (James 1:1). To a group of people badly in need of wise counsel, James offered not an escape route but a path to spiritual maturity….waiting for the Lord. You’ll discover that He’s worth waiting for.