Surviving While Scattered: Patience[ Bible Study-James]
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James 1:1-4
After Jesus died on the cross, rose again, and ascended to the Father, believers in all parts of the world are now scattered. Now we are waiting for the return of Christ, but while we are waiting, what should we be doing with our lives? Many books exist already about survival, but they are written for people to survive natural disasters, being lost in the wilderness, or even a zombie apocalypse. But is there a book written for the children of God to survive in a home that is not ours? For those of us who are waiting for Jesus to return the Bible? Yes. Of course, we have the Bible, which is a lamp unto our feet as Christians, but even more specifically, I want to bring to your attention the book of James. The book of James is a survival guide for Christians. We may feel like the world is against us sometimes because it is. That means we need to use the wisdom from God’s word to survive. If we are going to survive in this world until God gathers us home we need to pay close attention to the lessons that the book of James teaches us.
If we are going to survive while scattered, we need:
Patience
James 1:1-3
1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
Is it fun to be lonely or to go through trials? Absolutely not, but they can be beneficial for us because trials have great potential to strengthen our faith. Every time we find ourselves in trouble, we have to trust in Christ. We have no other option but to trust in Him and to wait for His help. When this happens, it will strengthen our faith. When we understand this counterintuitive fact (which is hard to remember when you are in the thick of it) we can learn to be happy during our trials and our suffering. HAPPY!? Yes, happy. (Romans 5:2-5)
Matthew 5:11-12
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Is it easy to be happy when faced with a trial? Nope! But according to Jesus, we should be exceedingly happy when we go through hard times. We should rejoice. This is hard for me. I struggle sometimes to be content even when things around me are better than I deserve. I have eternal life, a safe and healthy family, food/water, the word of God, and books. Yet I find a way to not be happy. According to Jesus, I am nowhere close to where I should be spiritually speaking. I fail to rejoice even in the best of times. If everything was taken from me at this moment, even then I should be exceedingly happy. Just having Christ alone is enough for happiness. It pains me to even fathom losing everything I have. Do I love and appreciate Christ like I should? No, I could use some work. But with His help, I can grow in my walk with Him. It’s honestly embarrassing that I still complain even when my life is absolutely amazing and a complete blessing from God. I need to be thankful in these good times, and I need to remember the good times when I am in the midst of bad times. And with that knowledge, I know that good can eventually come from suffering. In the end, all of our trials continue to add to our faith. It all boils down to patience, we must have patience.
(Acts 5:41) The apostles were worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Lord willing, we would be worthy as well. I am not saying I look forward to suffering, but that it is a good thing to be counted worthy to suffer for Christ. To reach this level of faith in our walk with God, to rejoice in our suffering, can really only be accomplished by demonstrating patience. One day we will be gathered Christ and won’t need patience any longer. But for the time being, we encounter suffering in trials, it’s just the way the world works.
(1 Peter 2:19-21, 1 Peter 4:12-16) The Bible emphasizes to us that if we suffer, not for our own wrongdoing of course, but rather for the name of Jesus, it is a good thing. If we suffer for Him, we are like Him. But why do the children of God suffer in the first place?
(John 3:19-21) Suffering exists because of sin, plain and simple. The world would be a better place if men didn’t flee from the light, but because God is so good and has no evil, the natural man does not love Him. In fact, they flee from Him, because their works are evil. But because we are so sinful, we actually need to get closer to Him even more. We need Him! He can help us be the people He wants us to be by His mercy and grace it’s possible. We just need patience.
James 1:4
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
It’s impossible to be sinless on this side of heaven, but with the Lord’s help, we can be complete. We can be Christians who excel in all areas and have nothing lacking! This is important because while we are scattered around the world just trying to survive until Jesus returns, we need as many tools in our spiritual toolbox as possible. We need to be complete Christians.
Titus 2:12-14
12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
We are waiting for the return of Christ, we are waiting for that blessed hope. And in this moment we must live and survive in this world. This world is full of bad and sinful things, but the good news is that we can have happiness in Christ. We just need patience.
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Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English
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