JAMES DAY 39 - Fix Your Focus

DAY 39
Fix Your Focus
James 5:10-11

How do we grow patience?

I wonder if the answer to our impatience is in the rest of James’s opening line: “Be patient until the LORD’S COMING?” What is James doing? He’s shifting our focus away from the stuff that makes us impatient. He’s spotlighting Jesus.

What’s James telling us? Fix your focus to grow your patience.  

He fleshes that out with three examples of patience: farmers, prophets, and Job. First, think about farmers. Farmers can prepare good soil, provide other nutrients, and work with seasonal conditions. They can’t force rain, sunshine, or growth. They focus on what they can control instead of what they can’t. 

Second are the Old Testament prophets: they don’t sit unmoved by suffering. People like Deborah, Elijah, or Jeremiah were willing to suffer to confront idolatry and injustice.

Third is Job. Job lost almost everything: his family, his friends, his possessions, but never his faith. He stuck it out and God rewarded him in the end. 

All three examples show us it’s possible to shift our focus to reframe what makes us impatient. If they can do it, so can we! We have to stop hyper-fixating on irritations, even on suffering. Like a farmer, we have to focus on the things we can control. Like the prophets, we have to accept suffering as as part of life, even when - maybe especially when - we do the right thing. Like Job, we have to look ahead with hope that God will reward our patience. 

Changing our focus can quickly change how we feel and think. We give ourselves some breathing room to think more clearly, to see new opportunities to help, and to hope.

REFLECT
James names three examples of patience: farmers, Old Testament prophets, and Job. What do each of these show us about patience?

PRAY
Lord, fix my focus to grow my patience. Help me to focus on what I can control, not on what I can’t. Help me to accept suffering for what’s right. Help me to look ahead with hope to the rewards of Christ and his kingdom. Amen.