What are you thankful for, this Sunday?

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

I Corinthians 13:4

I am thankful for God's patience with me. Much more patient with me than I am with others. God is patient with me when I make the same mistake over and over again, when I struggle with the same temptation again, when I sin, again. He does not condone, his Spirit convicts me, but, does not condemn me. This patience is his love for me. I am thankful for his patient love for me. 

AM I PATIENT YET?

Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

James 5:10-11 (NIV)

I don't know about you, but for me, patience in any situation is hard, let alone in the face of suffering. I think it's hard because we can't see the end. All we can see is the here and now. God works from eternity. 

In the book of Job we start out with a view from eternity seeing behind the scenes that Jobs sufferings were not because he was sinful but because he was  a righteous man and the devil was trying to prove that he could make him turn from God if the right amount of suffering was applied. After it all God blessed Job more than before. 

The bottom line is that no matter what we are feeling or experiencing, God is full of compassion and mercy. God longs to be gracious to us and will rise up to show us compassion (see Isaiah 30:18). 

We can't see the end from the beginning, but we know that God does and he is working all things out for the good for those who love him. You are loved by him.

Father, thank you for your love for us. Open our eyes to see you in our lives. Praise be to you in us today!

WAIT FOR IT...

"Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." James 5:7-8

The farmer has to be patient because he can't make it rain. He can't make a seed grow faster. All he can do is plant and wait. In the same way we need to stand firm in our faith and wait upon the Lord to work his will in our lives. 

James tells us to be patient for the Lord's coming. And then he says it is near. How much nearer is it now? We can plant the seeds of the gospel and wait for the harvest like a farmer waiting for the autumn and spring rains. That is all we are supposed to do. 

Right now, we are to be patient and stand firm. Patience is knowing God is Sovereign and in control, working all things for the good. Standing firm is doing what is right, acting in love by faith, no matter what. The world around us is flat out against us. Still we follow Christ. Stand firm. 

Father, help us patiently stand firm and do what is right. Praise be to you in us today!

LET THE JAMBALAYA MATURE

"Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:4 (NIV)

I was watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Channel once and they were cooking jambalaya. The local jambalaya king said the key was to let it alone once you had the rice in it. So of course Bobby Flay didn't leave it alone, he kept taking the lid off and his rice didn't come out right. The jambalaya king didn't mess with his and his rice was perfect. The key was to let the pot do its work. 

I think our spiritual maturity is a bit like waiting for jambalaya to cook. We want to lift the lid and see what God is doing. We get impatient and start asking, "Am I mature yet? Are you done, God?" I won't know if I am patient, until I need to be patient. I won't know if I am compassionate until an opportunity to show compassion presents itself. I guess the key is just letting God do what he wants to do and having the faith that he is in control. 

Maturity is not about reaching some spot where I can say I am mature and then I am done with it. Maturity is when I learn to rest in God no matter where I am at. Everyday is an opportunity to let God work in and through us. What does God have in store for today?

Father, help us to let perseverance do it's work in us to to love as you have loved us. Praise be to you in us today!

NOT A FEELING, PERSEVERANCE

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." James 1:2-3

Consider this: it's not about your feelings. James is not telling us to feel joyful when we encounter trials. He is teaching that when you are in a trial to act like you would act if your were joyful about something. 

We are joyful when something is going well. We are joyful when we know God is in control and that he has worked something out for the good in our lives. You know, like when you get the job, you get the raise, something goes your way. You act with confidence, you know you are in the right place, you know God is with you. Choose to act like that when you go through a trial. That is what James is teaching.

When we go through trials God uses them to develop us spiritually. Now, if you are like me, you usually ask and look for any other way besides a trial. Like W.C. Fields said when asked why he was reading a Bible he said, "Looking for loopholes." Sometimes we look at grace as a loophole to get out of things rather than through them. 

If you have been a Christian for a while I am sure you have had one of those waiting on God experiences where it went past the time you had for it being possible to work things out. You thought all was lost and then God worked. We are supposed to learn perseverance from those trials, it's not a been there, done that thing. God is developing perseverance or patience (KJV) in us. That is a good thing. That God is working in your life is a good thing, a very good thing. We persevere because we know that God is Sovereign over everything and that he works all things out for our good.  

Father, help us to rest in you and persevere. Praise be to you in us today!

DO YOU NEED TO GET IT TOGETHER?

"We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised." Hebrews 6: 11-12 

One of the things I don't appreciate about some of the online "devotional" pages on say Facebook or Google+ is that they are all about the warm fuzzy. You're supposed to read it, get a little warm fuzzy inside and move on to a blessed day. Sometimes (a lot of times times) we really need something more substantial.

I remember once my wife and I were experiencing a bit of a trial and we were blindsided by something and didn't really know what was going on. I ran into a friend and pastor of mine. He didn't tell me, "Everything is going to be all right. Just trust God." No. He basically gave me a verbal face slap and told me to get it together because my wife needed me to be strong and to know that I knew God was in control and would, like always, take care of us. It was what I needed. It was what my wife needed from me.

The writer of Hebrews is giving us a bit of a verbal face slap. Not what we may want to hear, but, what we need to hear. I think most of the time we need to stop trying to wait to feel like God is going to work all things for good and start acting like we know God is going to work all things out for our good! 

We need to be diligent. We need to have faith and be patient because God is doing what he wants (which is working out all things for our good) in the time that he knows is best. I must tell you that I don't always get why God does things the way he does them or with the timing that he does them. But, my inability to see things from an eternal perspective does not inhibit or alter what God is doing in my life. I just need to be diligent, have faith and patiently wait on God. 

Father, help us to be diligent and wait upon you. Praise be to you in us today! Show us yourself! 

THE AGAINESS OF GRACE: II Timothy 4:2

"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction." II Timothy 4:2

Last night my youngest son had a baseball game. It did not go well. In contrast to our last game where we almost played error free, this game was a complete error fest. One of the other father/coaches looked at me in complete frustration and said that for this time in the year we just shouldn't be having these kind of problems. As the manager (and father) I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to help the boys learn to get over a mistake, refocus and make the next play. Most importantly, I need to do it with great patience and careful instruction. 

Think of how many situations in life this truth applies. As a supervisor, manager or trainer you must be patient and skillfully instruct someone on how to do something. Even as a co-worker we need to patiently "teach". 

Spiritually speaking, we all struggle sometimes to grasp the simple truth that God's love applies to us. We all fall short. We all sin. That is not an excuse. Sometimes we struggle to grab hold of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. You might call it the againess of grace.

When we are given the opportunity to help someone live by faith we need to "teach" with great patience and careful instruction. Remember the amazing patience that God's is displaying toward you at this very moment. As Christ is patient with us, we need to be patient with others. Teach with the againess of grace. 

Father, thank you for your great patience with me! Praise be to you in us today!