Are you patient? Or are you impatient? Does it depend on the circumstances? Are you patient sometimes and impatient at other times? What dictates whether you are patient or not? Is there a pattern? Have you thought about it?
Patience can be hard to come by. We live in an impatient world. We want everything and we want it right now—including patience. We can get immediate answers to questions from Google. We can order just about anything from Amazon and have it within a couple days.
One encounter I had with patience included a lady praying for patience, a mission trip to Romania, a missed flight, and two days trying to get home. A long story, but we all learned a little about having patience during that trip. We jokingly teased her, stating it was all her fault for praying for patience.
James tells his audience to wait patiently for Jesus to come again. It can be a challenge when we see the mess our world is in. We may want Jesus to return immediately and relieve us of all the negatives we are experiencing. However, none of us know when He will return.
On the other hand, we have been waiting for so long—roughly two-thousand years—that we often forget we are waiting. We walk through life blinded by busyness and cultural norms. We rarely think that we are waiting for Jesus to return. We would be well served to remember He is returning and we are to be ready.
I pray we all remember we are waiting for Jesus’ return. I pray we wait with patience and actively spread the hope of Christ. I pray each one of us know that no one knows when Jesus will return. Jesus will return. Wait patiently. Wait actively. Spread the hope of Christ.
James 5:7a “Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord.”
Marty Pressey 