SPIRITUAL
DIARY
Date: 11-06-03
My
Worship Time Focus: The
Farmer
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: James 5:7-9
1. Message of the verse: “Be patient,
therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for
the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the
early and late rains. You too be
patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not complain, brethren, against one
another, that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing
right at the door.” (NASB) “Dear brothers and sisters, you must be
patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who eagerly
look for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They patiently wait for the
precious harvest to ripen. You, too,
must be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. Don’t grumble about each other, my brothers
and sisters, or God will judge you. For look! The great Judge is coming. He is
standing at the door!” (NLT)
We now
begin the 12th chapter of “Be Mature,” and again we need to be
reminded that we are focusing on maturity as we study James. The outline on page 14 shows that we are in
section five, “He is prayerful in troubles,”
and point two under this is “physical troubles.” The title of this chapter is “The Power of
Patience.”
As we
begin this chapter I would first of all talk a bit about worship, and how I
think it ties into being patience.
Perfect worship of God is described for us in Revelations 4 and the
apostle John had the opportunity to look upon this worship and wrote about it
in this wonderful chapter. This is how I
believe we can tie this in to being patience.
God is showing John and us that this is how worship is suppose to be done,
and this is how it will be done once God pours out His wrath on the unbelieving
world during the upcoming tribulation period.
He is saying to us that we to will be able to worship God in this
perfect way, only we will have patience while we go through these trials and
tribulations here on earth. James
mentions the return of the Lord three times in this section. It is good to remember that God does no
always pay His bill at the end of the week, but He will pay them in His own
perfect time, and we must be willing to wait for His perfect timing. Jesus said in John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have
peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world.” I am sure
that you remember the story about a painter who was asked to paint a picture
about peace, and as he unveiled the painting many people were surprised that he
had painted a picture of a raging waterfalls, and above this river was a tree
limb that stuck out over it, and in the tree limb was a bird’s nest with a
mother bird taking care of her babies.
This is a good picture of being a believer in this world, for as the
raging storms are around us we are being cared for by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we can experience, like this verse says, His peace.
Dr.
Wiersbe says that there are two Greek words to describe patience in this
section and some believe that the word used in verses 7, 8, & 10 could
refer to patience with respect to persons while the word for patience in verse
11 could refer to patience with respect to conditions or situations. “Patience means ‘to stay put and stand fast
when you’d like to run away.’”
“The
question that we must get an answer to is:
How can we as Christians experience this kind of patient endurance as we
wait for the Lord to return?” James
answers this question by giving three encouraging examples of patient
endurance. I. The Farmer (5:7-9); The Prophets (5:10); and
Job (5:11)
1. The Farmer (5:7-9)
If we know anything at all about farming we know that it is
not for a person with little patience, for crops do not grow over night. The farmer must be patient with the weather,
and also with the seed. I can see five
points that Dr. Wiersbe points out from this passage.
a.
Why
wait so long (5:7). In verse seven
James says that the crop or fruit is precious and this is why it is worth
waiting for. Mark
4:26-29 give some insight into this, “Jesus also said, "Here is another
illustration of what the Kingdom of God is like: A farmer planted seeds in a
field, and then he went on with his other activities. As the days went by, the
seeds sprouted and grew without the farmer’s help, because the earth produces
crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat
are formed, and finally the grain ripens.
And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with
a sickle.” (NLT)
b.
Christians
are spiritual farmers (5:8). James must have been listening to Jesus as he
watched his ministry on earth, even though he was not a believer at the time
for he to uses earthly stories to give us heavenly truths. As “Christian farmers” we to are looking for
a spiritual harvest and that harvest comes from the soil of our “hearts.” “Be ye also patient;
stablish your hearts.” Our
hearts are the soil into which the seed, which is the Word of God goes
into. Jesus spoke of this in Luke 8:11,
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of
God.” As we go through the
Christian life we too go through different seasons, but we must remember that
the Lord is in control of these seasons, and even though there are times when
His presences seems far off and He seems to have left us on our own we must not
loose heart for He has said I will never leave you nor forsake you. Another thing we must remember is that we
must not have a hard heart to the teachings of the Word of God like Saul had,
which caused him to sin, but even after his sin his heart did remain hard, and
God does not work in a hard heart like He words in a heart that is of “good
soil” like David’s heart. God said of
David that he was a man after God’s own heart, he was a man who would return to
the Lord when he sinned and confess his sin to the Lord, for he had a good
heart.
c.
You
must have an established heart (5:8). Paul tells us in Romans 1:11 that one of the
purposes of the local church is to establish the heart. “For I long to see
you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be
established.” Paul practiced
this truth by sending Timothy to the Thessalonian church. “Therefore, when we
could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone, and
sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the
gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith,
that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that
we are appointed to this.” Paul
prayed about this establishing of the heart for the Thessalonian believers as
seen in 1Thes. 3:10-13, and prayer and the ministry of the Word of God in
establishing the heart for the Lord, for a heart this is not established cannot
bear fruit.
“Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and
supply what is lacking in your faith.
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for
us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each
other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will
be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus
comes with all his holy ones.”
d.
We
must work while we wait for the harvest.
As we wait for the spiritual harvest we must be going about
the Lord’s work while we wait for his return.
We are not to be like the Thessalonian believers who quit working for
they thought the Lord’s return was soon, and because of that they quit
working. This is wrong.
e.
We
are not to fight while we work (5:9). If a farmer was to get his work done he did
not have time to quarrel with his neighbors, and we as believers, if we are
going about doing the work of the Lord will not have time for quarrels
either. “Impatience with God often leads to impatience with God’s
people, and this is a sin we must avoid.
If we start using the sickles on each other, we will miss the harvest!”
2. Spiritual meaning for my life today: These verses surely teach the old saying that
patience is truly a virtue, and I know that the Lord is using the trials in my
life so that I will have more patience and endurance. The things that used to be important to me
are not as important to me as I look at them through the Word of God. To know and realize that the Lord is in
control of all things and that He has promised never to leave me nor forsake
me, and that what He uses me to accomplish on this earth, the short time I am
here is more important than things, and money, for my help comes from the Lord
who made heaven and earth, He will not allow my foot to slip, He who keeps me
will not slumber.
The
Word of God was refreshing to my heart as I read it this morning.
My
Steps of Faith Today: Trust
in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will
direct your paths.
Memory verse for the week:
James 1:6
6.
But let him as in faith without doubting, for the one who
doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the sea.
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