I’M SAVED, NOW WHAT? (part-49)

I’M SAVED, NOW WHAT?

PATIENCE EXHIBITED
Back to the topic of patience. We can sometimes be encouraged in
our efforts to develop patience when we see examples of others who
have exercised patience during trials. We can see in the following
verse that James understands how we can be influenced by examples.
    Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience
    in the face of suffering, take the prophets who
    spoke in the name of the Lord. (James 5:10)

He reminds us of prophets in the Old Testament who suffered rejection
and abuse. Even in the midst of their suffering, they remained patient
and retained their hope and trust in God. Since he referenced to grumbling
in the previous verse (James 5:9), in this verse he could be instructing us to
exercise patience when we are going through tough times, instead of taking
it out on other believers.

BLESSINGS FOR PATIENCE
We may think, it’s fine to have patience, but how do we benefit from it?
James says that we will be blessed.
    As you know, we count as blessed those who have
    persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance
    and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.
    The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. (James 5:11)

To emphasize his point, he refers to Job. During his suffering, Job had
many questions and yet he endured his pain with perseverance and faith.
What was the result of his patience? He was fully blessed by the Lord.
Even though many of his questions remained unanswered, he found
peace and restoration.

One question many folks may ask when things are going bad is,
    “What have I done wrong?”
If doing something wrong is what triggers turmoil in the life of a person,
then due to the magnitude of Job’s troubles, he must have done many
things wrong. To help us with our thoughts of cause and effect
(doing wrong causes troubles), just how bad of a person was Job?
    In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job.
    This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and
    shunned evil. (Job 1:1)

Not only was he upright, not only did he fear God, and not only did he
shun evil, but according to this verse, he was also blameless. Does that
clear up any thoughts about what you have done wrong that brought
troubles into your life?

There are times when we just don’t understand why God does the things
He does, but we know that He IS God. The potter molds the clay as he sees
fit in order to make it into something wonderful. God owns the privilege of
molding us as He sees fit in order to make us into someone who can enjoy
His presence and His blessings. We should be thankful that He feels that
way about us.

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