Struggling to get through a tough breakup? Battling against people who don’t get what you’ve set out to do? Roughing it through a cold? It all needs patience. And in today’s verse, James gives us role models for patience, people to look to. Who? Well, it’s not immediately comforting. In verses 10-11, James tells us to learn patience from people who were driven out of cities, kidnapped, slandered, and, in one case, left with nothing and nobody: Job, and the prophets. These were people pushed to the edge. But, it’s how they responded that James wants us to look at. They endured. Not stoically, not because it ‘made them better people’. But because they endured for something. Because they trusted that God would come through. So often we think patience is just about blankly sitting through something. But patience is about sticking true to the God who said He’d come through. Patience is about holding out for something positive, not about enduring through something negative. ‘You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.’ (verse 11.) What did the Lord finally bring about? The return of everything Job lost, times two. So when James tells us to look at these guys, he’s telling us: look forwards to what you’re being patient for. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Hold on.
