Let Patience

“BUT LET PATIENCE HAVE ITS PERFECT WORK,
THAT YOU MAY BE PERFECT AND COMPLETE,
LACKING NOTHING.” JAMES 1:4

Many times I skipped over the word let, ‘but let patience…’, when
reading this verse. I always focused on the verse before, where it
says to have joy in various trials knowing that this testing of your
faith produces patience. It got me thinking, how do we let patience
have its perfect work? I think many of us pray for patience; ask for
God to give it to us. But I’ve realized, that when I asked for patience,
and an opportunity for me to be patient came, I got angry instead of
practicing it. I wanted a magical feeling of divine peace and patience
to just wash over me; and all of a sudden I would be patient. But I
think we’ve all realized now, that’s not how life works. If you want
something, you have to work for it. How do we usually react when
someone is pushing on you to go faster, or when people are yelling
at you? We must examine ourselves; do we push back, and yell
back? This tactic usually doesn’t have a perfect and complete result,
but a frustrating one. Next time someone is yelling at you, stop and
think, try and hold back, practice peace. It’s not easy, and it’s not
usually our first reaction. We tend to act on our feelings more than
using reasoning. We can let patience have it perfect result when we
are immersed in the word of God, when we surround our selves by
the bread of life. If we spend time with the man Himself who is
patience, we will start to look and live patience. But if we make no
effort, if we never open up the word of God, if we don’t meditate on
it, and only exchange hellos with our Savior at church, what do we
expect? Surely we are stopping patience from working in us.
So let patience have its perfect work, in you and in me.