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Patience and Perfection

The trying of your faith worketh patience. James 1:3

Patience isn't easy for most of us. If a plane is delayed a few minutes or something doesn't happen exactly when or how we expected it to, we get impatient and frustrated.  I have heard of people who have quit going to a particular church because the preacher didn't stop exactly on time! James said, "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." (James 5:7-8). 

Patience is not simply teeth-clenched endudrance. It is an attitude of expectation. The farmer patiently watches his barren ground because he knows there will be results. He has patience as he labors because there will be products of his labor.

So it is in the spiritual realm. God knows the final product of what is happening to us, so He would have us link patience to our faith. Ask God for the gift of patience--and then use it.

From, Hope for Each Day; Morning & Evening Devotions, by Billy Graham.