In His Time
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. James 5:7-8
We live in an “easy access “society. You can order a meal and have it delivered to your door in 30 minutes. You can shop on Amazon to your heart’s content and have everything delivered to your house in a day or two. And if we must wait in a line for drive -thru coffee or prescription pick up, it can feel like an inconvenience. Patience is something to which many of us don’t have easy access. We live in a society that largely desires immediate satisfaction. Too often the pursuit of this type of satisfaction is not obtained or at best is short lived.
The lesson here is typically to demonstrate to us the virtue of patience in our lives. Let’s start by putting God in the role of the patient farmer. He is doing the cultivating, pruning, and nurturing in the lives of His people. In Psalm 65:9-10 where David writes – “You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain for you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges, you soften it with showers and bless its crops”. God tells us repeatedly in the scriptures that He loves us, and He will take care of us. We are God’s vineyard, God’s field. We are the fertile ground God has prepared. We have the seed of His Word and if cultivated it will produce good harvest. He waits patiently for us to cooperate with Him to bear good fruit.
God’s grace and goodness make us grateful and encourage us to be gracious and patient with others. While we wait patiently on God, there’s plenty of work for us to do. Like a farmer, we have been planting and cultivating through our many ministries; prayer, service, giving and worship. We are to be living demonstrations of God’s love, knowing the harvest time is coming. May you experience God’s care for you, as your life, with patience and perseverance bears much fruit for the Lord!
Father God, thank You for Your unfailing, constant investment in me. Increase my patience so that I may deepen my love for others and make known Your awesome love available to those You want me to reach. Amen.