Patient Like a Farmer

I am not a patient man by nature. Put me behind someone going twenty miles an hour under the speed limit and you will find out quickly how much sanctifying I still need. Most of us are the same. We microwave our food, stream our shows, and get irritated when a web page takes four seconds to load. Then God tells us to wait, and we discover how little practice we have.

James writes to believers who were suffering, many of them poor and mistreated by the rich. His counsel is not, fight harder, or give up. It is, “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming.” Their patience had a horizon. Jesus is coming back. Wrongs will be made right. The Judge is real, and He is on His way.

Then James gives a picture from the field. A farmer plants his seed and then he waits. He waits for the early rains and the late rains. He cannot make it rain. He cannot pull on the stalks to make them grow faster. But he is not idle. He is watching, working, trusting that harvest is coming. James says, “You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

Strengthen your hearts. Patience is not passive. It is not just gritting your teeth until the bad thing passes. It is a heart that has been made firm by hope. You can wait well when you know how the story ends.

James also knows what impatience does to us. It turns sideways. “Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged.” When we are under pressure and God seems slow, we start grumbling at the people next to us. The spouse. The kids. The guy at work. James says, careful. “Look, the Judge is standing at the door!” You do not want Him to walk in and find you criticizing His people.

Then he points to examples. The prophets spoke for God and suffered for it. Job lost nearly everything and wrestled hard with God, yet he did not let go. And James tells us what Job learned in the end: “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” That is what you discover at the end of a long wait. Not that God was cold, but that He was kind all along.

Here is the good news underneath all of this. God Himself is patient. Peter tells us, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.” Where would any of us be without the patience of God? He waited for you. He kept calling. He kept putting people in your path. The Spirit grows patience in us by showing us how patient God has been with us.

So what are you waiting on this morning? A prodigal child. A diagnosis. A job. A marriage that needs healing. You cannot make it rain. But you can keep planting, keep praying, and keep your heart strong with the hope of Christ’s return. And while you wait, you can be patient with the people around you, because God has been so patient with you. The harvest is coming. The farmer does not doubt it, and neither should you.