Tag: patience

Come, Lord Jesus! – as Messiah

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(James 5:7-11)

“We’re almost there.” Every child is eager to hear those words on a long trip. Workers striving to hit an end-of-the-year goal are energized by those words as their boss sends out the office-wide memo. Fresh off another thrilling win, the team’s belief in its ability to achieve its championship aspirations swells as the coach shouts those words. “We’re almost there!”

James wrote it a bit differently, but with a similar purpose in mind. Instead of “we’re almost there,” his refrain was “He’s almost here – the Lord is near!” The words instill a sense of urgency, a call to action, an encouragement to be ready for his arrival. There is a sense of imminency in James’ words! “Just a little while longer! It won’t be long now! The wait is almost over!” 

But something may strike you as you consider these words from James: they were written a looooooooooong time ago. And still we wait. Jesus was a no-show to the first ears that heard these words of James. Jesus has been a no-show ever since. 

That tends to take a little wind out of the sails, doesn’t it? The sense of urgency dissipates over such a long period of time. So what are we to make of what can often feel like a boy-who-cried-wolf warning about Jesus’ imminent return that has been sounding for 2,000 years? When James first wrote these words, his audience had experienced what it was like for the long wait to be over when Jesus came the first time at his birth. But when century after century after century has passed and Scripture’s words, “the Lord is near” are still supposed to tide us over, well, urgency ever so gradually morphs into complacency. 

We see it in the church. You still find yourself wondering about certain folks you haven’t seen for who-knows-how-long. You might wonder if they’ve moved elsewhere or if they even still belong to the church. And here’s how that complacency cuts both ways: it isn’t just those who seem to be MIA, but it’s also those of us who are here but have been complacent about reaching out to them. For as much as we lament how neglected the Bible is, perhaps a close second is our neglect of the church directory.

And by no means is complacency’s reach limited to just this area – it can infect our service to others, our offerings, and our Christian living in general, allowing our fruits of the Spirit to become mushy and soft. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal.5:22-23) need their own missing person’s report filed. 

How do we make the shift back? How do we ditch the complacency and recapture the sense of urgency? ICYMI, James happens to mention a solution just once or twice (or four times…): be patient. Easier said than done! What exactly does that look like? Glad you asked, as James provides some pointers for patience as we await the Messiah’s return. He says to stand firm, avoid grumbling, and persevere. 

What are you standing on right now? Be careful, because if you say Jesus, then your life will show Jesus. What I mean is that simply knowing what the answer should be does not always line up with reality. We fail to realize what experts we are in this area. We convince ourselves that this thing matters to me or that thing matters to me or we’re this type of person or that type of person. But often the cold, hard truth is that no one else observing our life would even begin to draw the same conclusion based on what they actually see.

We tell others that we absolutely love [blank], but then immediately follow it up with the excuse that we don’t have time for [blank]. Sorry, but no you don’t love it that much if you can’t even make time for it! We buy stuff that we’re convinced we need to support this hobby or interest… but the only time those things get touched is when they’re moved from being in the way in one place to being in the way somewhere else. And there they sit, serving as constant reminders of our imaginary hobby or interest. Parents go back and forth with their children and husbands go back and forth with their wives with what we refer to as nagging – but we fail to realize the reason it feels like nagging is that every comment is a convicting reminder that I am not who I say I am or am not interested in what I say I am interested in.

So if you say that you are standing firm right now on the truths and promises of Jesus and his Word, I’d encourage you to do a personal assessment to take note of exactly what evidence in your day-to-day living supports that confidence. If you don’t see as much evidence as you thought, there’s no time like the present to adjust it. If that is the only step you take in applying James’ pointers for patience, it would be a commendable one – and one that will reap noticeable blessings. 

James also says that patience involves avoiding grumbling against one another. Uh oh. Grumbling in general is such a way of life for some of us. Your “Grumble List” from just the morning alone is already into its second column. “It’s too early. I don’t have anything to wear. We don’t have anything to eat. They’re sitting in our seat. I don’t like this hymn, etc.”

And when that comes so easily to us, it isn’t much of a stretch to direct that grumbling against others. “Our spouse leaves this there, our kids neglected that, so-and-so at church didn’t do it the right way…” Now, these things may have some merit, but grumbling is really not about addressing the actual issue itself so much as it is my attitude and approach to it. I can see an issue through a lens of gratitude or grumbling, and whichever perspective I take is going to determine how I interact with the other person involved. See – grumbling isn’t actually about others as much as we think; it has much more to do with our own attitude. Addressing this is another way we wait patiently. 

And to round out the three keys to patience as we wait? Perseverance. Not our strong suit as a society. Adversity hits, and how do we respond? Outrage. We can’t believe this thing happened. We can’t believe this thing happened to us. We can’t believe someone else would do that.

Our default is the victim mentality that is convinced that removing the adversity – which is clearly someone else’s fault – is the only option. We don’t even consider how we might actually endure it or deal with it or process it or handle it or put up with it. We go right to eliminating it, which means turning the bullseye on someone or something else as the cause.

Those are just the cases that don’t even really involve significant adversity. What about when those arrive? What am I talking about? Fighting (in a good way!) instead of giving up. Forgiving instead of getting even. Growing instead of going when it gets tough. Trusting when tested. Some of you are going through seasons right now that are forcing you to face these difficult decisions. The adversity is real. The pull to call it quits is as strong as it’s ever been. Giving up seems so much easier. But patience means perseverance, friends!

Consider James’ examples. The prophets. Talk about a tough job description! “Go to God’s people and call them to repentance, but be careful – they won’t like you and will want you imprisoned or dead.” That’s perseverance! Or consider Job, who had everything, then had nothing, and was surrounded by nothing but miserable advice from his wife and friends to help him cope with trauma and tragedy. Still he didn’t turn away. That’s perseverance!

What fuels your perseverance? Where do we find the power to keep pushing? James tells us. “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (v.11c). You know what? That’s worth waiting for. Patiently, even!

But you know what else? We don’t have to wait for that – the Lord’s compassion and mercy are already ours! What proof of this do we have? Look back at Jesus’ first coming as Messiah. THAT was compassion and mercy. 2 Corinthians 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). Literally, God is the Father of compassion, for his Son is its source! The Messiah – the anointed or chosen one – has already come, and he already brought compassion with him the first time.

The gift wrapped up in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem was compassion personified. He came to give himself as the gift on Calvary that would keep on giving. What greater gift of compassion could there be than canceled sins? What greater gift of compassion could there be than the comfort of constant forgiveness for sinners? God doesn’t just call himself the Lord full of compassion and mercy – he backs it up!

Think on this for one second. If that is what the Messiah came to bring with him the first time, can you even imagine what he’s bringing with him when he returns??? Can you even imagine how he can top that? Well, you won’t have to wait much longer – He’s almost here. The Lord is near! In the meantime, we wait patiently for the Messiah to return. We do so by standing firm, giving up the grumbling, and persevering. And we do all of that with the compassion and mercy the Messiah brought with him the first time to tide us over until he comes again. 

“Habits of His Grace: Patience”

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(Luke 13:6-9)

In what area of your life could patience make the greatest impact? Would your relationships be better off if you were able to slow down and not rush them along so fast? Would you lose your temper less? Would patience enable you to be a better listener? Would it help you make better decisions if you patiently thought things through a little longer? Most of us would see some sort of benefit in some way if patience was a little more prevalent in our lives.

As we consider this habit of his grace – patience – though, would you really find it all that valuable if I spent the rest of this post focusing on tips and tricks to help you become more patient in your life? Would “5 Steps toward More Patience” or “3 Things you Can Do Right Now to Practice Patience” radically impact your ability to be more patient? I don’t think so. The truth is, to help us become more patient we don’t need more information, but rather transformation. Real patience requires real change. And the good news is that Jesus is in the business of changing people. Jesus can transform us because Jesus alone can provide the patience we’re pursuing. 

Let’s start with where I think we most often tend to go wrong. When the matter of patience comes up, the way we frame the discussion around it is that we need more of it. We tell others they need to be MORE patient. As we reflect on an incident when we lost our cool, we tell ourselves we should have been MORE patient. But consider this: what if MORE patience isn’t the solution to the problem? Have you ever found yourself pressed for time, knowing you needed to jump in the shower before rushing to the next thing, but you just didn’t have the time? So what is the quick fix? Throw on an extra swipe or two of deodorant. Spray on a quick spritz of perfume or cologne. And it works… kind of… briefly… maybe. But not so well. You can try to cover it up, but inevitably the reminder that you didn’t actually shower has a way of coming back to haunt you later on at some point. In the same way, hoping that MORE patience will solve the problem is like a smelly teenager trying to cover up a bad case of B.O. with half a stick of deodorant – it doesn’t work! 

Why doesn’t it work? Because it doesn’t address the real problem. Just as the stink needs to be scrubbed away in the shower rather than covered up, so something else is needed rather than just thinking MORE patience will solve the problem. Do you want to know what the real problem is? Do you want to know what question you should be asking yourself, rather than “Why am I not more patient?” Instead of “How can I become more patient,” here’s the real question you ought to be asking: “Why am I so impatient in the first place?” That’s an entirely different question, isn’t it? So if we want to see more of this habit of his grace in our lives, if we want patience to prevail, the solution isn’t seeking how to add more of it; the solution must address the root problem – our impatience.

“How do I become more patient” is really asking “Why am I so impatient?” My guess is that as you wrestle with that question more, you will likely uncover a lie or two that you have been believing. Why is it hard for you to be patient with other people in general, even those you’ve never met? Might it be that the lie replaying itself over and over in your head is the lie that all your problems are someone else’s fault? If you actually believe that lie, of course it will be difficult to be patient with anyone else if you view everyone else as the cause of all or most of your problems. Why do you lose it so quickly with your children? Is it because you believe the lie that they should somehow be perfect, perhaps even stemming from your own upbringing under the impression that perfection was what your parents demanded? Why do you have so little patience with your spouse? Is it because you believe the lie that your spouse should be more like you by now, and every time you are reminded that they aren’t, you perceive it to be a deficiency instead of just a difference? No, the solution to our problem is not to cover up the stink of our impatience by adding more patience; the solution begins with determining the source of my impatience. That may very well mean uncovering a lie that you’ve allowed yourself to believe for too long.

While it’s easier and far more tempting to blame others for testing our patience or causing our impatience, if others were actually the problem, we’d spend the rest of our lives trying to fix something we can’t fix. You’d perpetually be impatient, because you cannot possibly fix everyone else who “makes you” impatient. But you can fix you. You can fix your impatience, if you are first willing to acknowledge that you are the real issue and not someone else. But if I continue to deny that the real issue is me and my impatience, I’ll never really address the problem in a way that will bring about meaningful change, and I’ll miss out on the grace that is able to make a real difference.

Consider the parable Jesus told. What was the real issue? Was the fig tree not given the opportunity to produce figs? Was it not planted in good soil? Was not enough time allowed? No, the tree had been given every opportunity to produce fruit, but failed to do so. The tree was the problem, not anyone or anything else! It wasn’t producing fruit. So as we apply this parable to the fruit of patience, we must take ownership and realize that whatever fruit of patience we’re looking for in our own lives is our own responsibility and not anyone else’s. The scary part of the parable is that as much patience as the landowner exhibits, even extending the life of the tree for one more year, there still was the very real possibility that failing to bear fruit resulted in being cut down. That is really the sobering reality of each of these habits of his grace – to realize that a failure to produce them in our lives gives the landowner – God – every right to cut down the trees that don’t produce!

Jesus, the master storyteller, has a way of making things very personal, and when he gets personal, he leaves his listeners with nowhere else to look but in the mirror at ourselves. If you look at the discussion which led up to Jesus telling this parable, he took it from a general question to a personal point. Tragedy had struck when Pilate had murdered some of the Galileans and disgraced the Jewish faith by mixing the blood of those murdered in with the blood of the animals scarfed in the Temple. Just as they do today, people at that time presumed that it must have been karma – for those people to be on the receiving end of such tragedy, they surely must have done something wrong to have had it coming. But Jesus quickly shut down that line of reasoning and made the whole thing very personal when he concluded, “But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Lk. 13:5). 

What came next was the parable in these verses of our text. Rather than pondering the status of others who suffered in this way or that, Jesus said the real issue is where do you stand? What do your branches look like? Where is your fruit? And through the parable, Jesus wants us to take away two important points: 1 – God is very patient in looking for our fruit, and 2 – God’s patience with us has its limits. 

Notice that God patiently extended the time for the fruit tree to bear fruit! Isn’t that just like God? And why is he so patient? Peter explained it: “[God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God is patient because he wants to save everyone. One of the points that came up in our recent discussion of the book, Rooted, was the honest struggle of reading the Bible – especially the Old Testament, because there are parts that drag along and simply aren’t all that exciting. But you know what the Bible is? A record of God’s patience. His people turn away, and God patiently sends one prophet after another to turn them back to him. His leaders display one sinful character flaw after another, and God patiently corrects and uses them anyway. God’s people turn away; God waits for his people to return. God is patient, so the parable captures that habit of his grace by providing more time for the tree to bear fruit. 

But notice this also: God appointed a limited time for the tree to bear fruit. It wasn’t open-ended. It wasn’t indefinite, until “some day.” It was one year in the parable. What does that one year represent for us? Right now! This very moment! For today might be day 364 of the one-year extension given to the tree to produce fruit. If so, then tomorrow is day 365 and the year is up. Time to cut down the trees that still aren’t bearing fruit! 

God is patient – don’t worry! God’s patience is limited – don’t wait! Both are true, depending on which message you need to hear. If we think little of God and his Word right now, don’t wait! If we are concerned about not measuring up before God, don’t worry – Jesus is our patience! 

John realized that. In the Book of Revelation he wrote, “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus…” (Revelation 1:9). John recognized what the gospel leads us to recognize: in Christ, my impatience doesn’t disqualify me, for not only has that sin been paid for, but it has also been replaced by Jesus’ perfect patience. So my impatience has been paid for and replaced with Jesus’ patience! That means God does not judge you on the basis of your impatience, but rather on Christ’s patience, and his patience passes the test of perfection for you. 

Now then, go and bear the fruit of that patience. Your impatience has been forgiven. It isn’t who you are. In Christ you are patient, so let the repentant fruit of patience flourish on the branches of your life. We don’t have to cover up what we aren’t anymore. In Christ, we can blossom into what he has made us: patient. We have everything to gain in dealing with others patiently. And I believe that patience can be one of the most notable qualities that Christians can demonstrate today if we are going to show how attractive grace is, because patience is sorely lacking in our world right now. It is a precious commodity that is exhibited far too infrequently. So let us make the most of the time we have, the year we have been given to allow God to dig around us and fertilize us with his Word and Sacrament, that we might produce abundant fruit of this habit of his grace, patience.