Faith and Reality (James 5:1-20) – Part 2 - Patience

Day 2 – Our Perspective on Time vs. God’s Perspective (v. 7-12)

We’ve all heard the expression, “Time flies when you are having fun.” This old axiom speaks to our subjective view of time. Our awareness of time and temporal properties is a constant feature of conscious life. Our subjective view of time impacts many areas of our lives including our thinking, our memories, and our anticipated view of the future.

This has been especially apparent to us during this period of isolation. If time feels weird to you right now, you’re not alone. On social media platforms all over the web, feeds and timelines are filled with people talking about how their perception of time seems to have altered during COVID-19 lockdown and quarantine. There are many psychological factors that explain this phenomenon, but they all boil down to the fact that we are just not that good at perceiving the passage of time without outside assistance.

If we think back we know it’s been like this our whole lives. When I was a kid, it always seemed to take longer to get from Thanksgiving to Christmas than it did to get from the last day of school to the first day of the next year. Learning to wait is incredibly challenging when you are young. One of our most difficult life lessons is learning patience.

I don’t know about you, but I have come to really hate the word, “patience”. As a child I always hated when my mom would tell me, “You need to be patient.” Learning to be patient is always painful, but maybe the reason that it is so difficult is that our notion of what patience is has been twisted by this false world around us.

Our Perspective is, so called, “Delayed” gratification.

Delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward.

Generally, it’s associated with resisting a smaller but more immediate reward in order to receive a larger or more enduring reward later. We consider it a sign of a mature person if they are able to delay gratification.

Scientists have studied various factors that affect our ability to delay gratification and one of the things that they determined was that it was less about willpower and more about being able to see the eventual end.

When people have a clear goal and they know precisely when they will achieve the increased reward, people can easily delay gratification, but they found that if people did not know exactly when they would receive the reward, that it did not matter how much greater that eventual reward would be – more often than not they still chose the immediate gratification.

It is difficult to teach delayed gratification when children grow up expecting large, instant rewards for their years of schooling. Social pressure and media have had the effect of teaching people to expect instant gratification when it comes to work.

The idea of waiting for a good job, earned through working from the bottom up, frequently upsets and frustrates emerging adults in today's society. It has created a generation of individuals who begin their work lives already miserable.

But James tells us that delayed gratification is not real patience. We need to have patient endurance.

That’s the reality: Enduring Faithfulness

God doesn’t view time the same way that we do. He sees the end in the beginning. It is all one piece to Him and as disciples of Christ, we are called to trust in God that His timing is superior to our own.

We don’t choose to delay our own gratification for a higher reward for ourselves; instead we seek HIS gratification as we patiently endure. Biblical patience acknowledges a fundamental underlying principle – It’s not about you!

James uses the example of a farmer patiently waiting for the rains to fall. His waiting does nothing to guarantee that the rain will fall. He could prepare his fields, plant the seeds, only to see all his efforts go to waste. But a farmer does not give up when the rains don’t come. He patiently endures.

Endurance is an interesting word to use – we speak of endurance when we talk about a person running a race – the best runners continue their activity – they continue to give their best efforts all the way to the finish line even if they don’t come in first place.

The farmer does the same – he waits for the rain, but it is not an inactive waiting – it is a waiting filled with effort and anticipation – he prepares to receive the harvest – he trusts that the rain will fall.

Peter wrote about this kind of faithful waiting in 1 Peter 1:8-12. He wrote:

“8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. 10 This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. 11 They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. 12 They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.”

Peter tells us that the prophets of the Old Testament did not understand salvation the way that we do. They prophesied Christ for us - knowing that they would not see the fulfillment of the promise.

They were willing to go through their entire lives in faithful service to the Lord without receiving a reward or even answers to their questions. How did they do it – more importantly – how can we do it?

Here in James 5 we see the solution in vs. 8: “Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.”

We keep our eyes on Jesus. We put him first in our lives. When his gratification becomes our goal and we continue to work with endurance waiting for his return like the farmer waits for the rain, then we are freed from our false impressions of time. We recognize the reality that the only timing that matters is God’s timing.

Paul put it best in the book of Titus chapter 2:

“…the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.”

How can we do anything else? We have already received more gratification than we deserve – God’s grace is the best reward.

Discussion Questions: In what ways are you mistaking delayed gratification for biblical patience? Titus 2:13 tells us that what we really have to look forward to is God’s glory, not our own gratification. What can you do to remind yourself of that this week? What is God calling you to do today that is purely for His glory and not for your own gratification?

Memory Verse: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12