1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, 2 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:18,080 Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn 3 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:20,799 Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm 4 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:25,000 Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one 5 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. Today's 6 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,800 Speaker 1: verse can be found in James Chapter five, Verse seven. 7 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,560 Speaker 1: Be patient, therefore beloved until the coming of the Lord. 8 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 1: The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, 9 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: being patient with it until it receives the early and 10 00:00:56,040 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: late rains. I used to be a very impatient driver. 11 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,120 Speaker 1: I would speed about the city on a regular basis. 12 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: I viewed every journey as a race, and every other 13 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 1: car as a competitor. Whatever I had to go somewhere, 14 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 1: I diligently type the destination into my GBS, which would 15 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:17,760 Speaker 1: spit out the best route to take, along with the 16 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: estimated time of arrival. But internally I looked at that 17 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: estimation and I would think, oh, I can beat that, 18 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,479 Speaker 1: And so that whole journey was spent trying to shave 19 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: off as much time from that estimation as I could. 20 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: Did you know that studies have shown that people save 21 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:43,280 Speaker 1: only approximately two minutes of driving time by speeding. One 22 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:47,560 Speaker 1: study revealed that on an average ten mile drive, increasing 23 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: your speed simply by twenty miles per hour only saves 24 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:57,800 Speaker 1: you thirty seconds of travel time. See, impatience doesn't actually 25 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:02,520 Speaker 1: save any time. What it does do, however, is rob 26 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: us of the beauty of the moment and our ability 27 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:09,040 Speaker 1: to recognize what God might be doing all around us. 28 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 1: And patient tells us that life is up to us 29 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:17,919 Speaker 1: and that God's promises are earned by perfect execution or 30 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: our own self mastery. When we are impatient, we speed 31 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:27,079 Speaker 1: past God's work, thinking well, we can do better. The 32 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: Book of James reminds us that the way of faith 33 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:33,920 Speaker 1: involves patience. If he points to the farmer as a 34 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:38,239 Speaker 1: prime example of this. A farmer doesn't plant crops if 35 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,800 Speaker 1: they don't think that they will grow. A farmer plants 36 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,359 Speaker 1: because they believe that something will be produced, that life 37 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 1: will erupt, that something will break through the ground, and 38 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:56,320 Speaker 1: so they wait in eager anticipation. Patience and hope they 39 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 1: go hand in hand. Walking into patient involves daring to 40 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:05,760 Speaker 1: believe that God is faithful. We grasp the promise that 41 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 1: says that we can experience the full power of God's 42 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: love and salvation in our lives. Patience means that even 43 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: if I don't see it in this moment, I can 44 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:22,280 Speaker 1: trust that God is true to God's word. James writes 45 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:25,280 Speaker 1: to the Christians in a time of persecution, when the 46 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:29,639 Speaker 1: faithful didn't see the redemption that they believed in when 47 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:32,920 Speaker 1: they looked at the world around them. But the word 48 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: of patience reminded them that God was faithful in all things, 49 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:41,440 Speaker 1: and the God's faithfulness didn't depend on what they could 50 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 1: see or experience. So, too, our Savior is trustworthy and 51 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: true in our lives, and so we can wait confidently 52 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: for the day when God's good promises are fully revealed. 53 00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 1: But being patient, however, isn't just about looking ahead. It's 54 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: also daring to believe that God is at work in 55 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: this moment. Patience reminds us that there is one greater 56 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,720 Speaker 1: than ourselves who was at work in ways beyond our 57 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: thoughts or imaginations. Again, James says, think about the farmer now, 58 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,800 Speaker 1: I admit I'm not a farmer. My only foray into 59 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: anything agricultural was growing hot peppers on our patio last summer. 60 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: Every day I would go out to see what was 61 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 1: happening and For the longest time I saw nothing, but 62 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:39,320 Speaker 1: I knew enough to know that underneath the dirt, far 63 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:44,560 Speaker 1: beyond what I could ever perceive, something was happening. Seeds 64 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: were breaking open and producing what would eventually become buds, 65 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 1: and the buds would eventually produce the small peppers I desired. 66 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:55,640 Speaker 1: And so over the course of weeks and months, I 67 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:59,280 Speaker 1: ended up having quite a bounty of peppers I longed for. 68 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,920 Speaker 1: See the farmer waits patiently for the crop that is 69 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:08,920 Speaker 1: always in the process of being revealed. Patience, in our 70 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:13,359 Speaker 1: faith it recognizes that God is working out the redemption 71 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 1: that we await. God is never doing nothing in our lives. 72 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:25,160 Speaker 1: Patience isn't faithful idleness. It isn't just fiddling our thumbs. 73 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:30,760 Speaker 1: Patience is an active way of faith. It's incarnational. We 74 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 1: dare to live out the very redemption that we believe 75 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 1: is coming into our lives. Is there an activity of God, 76 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:44,159 Speaker 1: or a promise of God, or a nuance of Christ's 77 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:49,520 Speaker 1: redemption that you want to see revealed. It may be healing, 78 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:54,039 Speaker 1: it may be direction or a decision. Maybe it's just 79 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:59,040 Speaker 1: a sense of Christ's nearness. Be patient, and I know 80 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:04,320 Speaker 1: that probably sounds trite. It sounds dismissive, but instead of 81 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 1: thinking that this means sitting idly by, try to incarnate 82 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:14,360 Speaker 1: the patience at described by James. Rejoice in the truthfulness 83 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:19,680 Speaker 1: of God's promise spoken to you and recognize the constant 84 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: work of the Holy Spirit within you. Living in this 85 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 1: way helps us to refrain from speeding past everything that 86 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:33,960 Speaker 1: God is doing, and it allows us to open our 87 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: hands to God's work of love, of grace and new life. Amen.