Trust God in Patience (James 5:7-11)

James has already told us that the true wisdom, the spiritual wisdom, the wisdom of humility trusts God with its future and plans and with is possessions and security. That would all go without saying, and be easy to do, if it didn’t come with challenges. But trust, by its very nature, is tied to hope. We can’t know what the future is going to look like. We can know how God is going to take care of all our needs. Or when. 

So, true wisdom also comes with endurance. We have to patient in our trust. An old-fashioned biblical term for this is “steadfastness.” This is something we don’t just see here in James. The bible is full of stories of people who had to endure in their trust that God would intervene. The prophets, the kings, Job, and many a psalm show us this aspect of faith. When Jesus described the four soils in His Parable of the Sower, the good soil was characterized by its steadfastness. 

It could be said, as James has already done when he said, “show me your faith without works, and I will show you mine by my works,” that true living faith is “seen” in its endurance.