Having children does not make a rich man poor! Having children makes a poor man rich!
You cannot take your riches to Heaven with you after you die, no matter how much you may try. But if you try hard you may accomplish one day having your children with you in Heaven after you die.
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. James 5:7b-8
Faking patience. Our own thinking tells us, of course, the lack of affliction causes us to act patient.
That is true.
And as long as all we are concerned with is acting the part, a lack of affliction will suffice.
True patience. The Word of God has a different take on it.
God says we need affliction, troubles, problems, even suffering, in order to learn true patience.
Fake patience will evaporate in any trial. And trials will come.
You know it, too: No pain, no gain, right?
James uses the farmer to illustrate the necessity of waiting and the reward for patience.
When a farmer plants his seeds, he knows that he will have to work and wait before he will see the fruit of his labor. First he tills the ground. Then he plants seed and prays for rain. In a few days he sees something coming up through the ground.
What would you think of a farmer who harvested his crop after those few days’ growth? Would he have anything worth eating or selling?
No, he needs to wait more, be patient more. He wants a strong, mature crop. That takes time. He has to work—tilling, weeding, irrigating—and wait until the process is complete. If he harvests too early, he will ruin it.
Parents must be patient too.
The first nine months seem to go forever. It’s a difficult wait, but a good chance to do the work of accumulating baby supplies. The next few hours of working and waiting for delivery to be over can seem like forever, too. We do warp time, don’t we!
But immediately after that all waiting is over, right? Wrong.
It’s time for a different time warp.
Parents work for years, caring for a child and instilling in him the training, discipline and encouragement he needs to mature enough to survive on his own.
Sometimes it seems like one step forward and two steps back. After all, they DO say we spend two years teaching a child to walk and talk, and the rest of their lives teaching them to sit down and hush. Heh heh.
It’s that way for every parent. Do not think for one minute that if you ditch your child, you will relieve yourself of the waiting, of the work of learning patience. You don’t really know patience unless you’ve waited for a prodigal.
Yes, child-rearing takes patience. In the same way, our Father is patiently training, disciplining, encouraging, and maturing us—through our afflictions—to be more like Jesus.
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:4
As we anticipate the rewards of patience, we can endure whatever happens in our lives. We can cope when we remember that heaven is forever and earth is passing. When the ground is shaking all around us and we are tempted to despair, we know God loves us and is with us. We can be patient because we know Jesus will come again and all bad things in life will finally be set right.
We do not merit any blessing from God, regardless of our personal right-doings. All blessings come from God’s mercy, and without God’s mercy and compassion toward us, we would be at Satan’s pleasure all the time and life on earth would be like Hell.
As it clearly is, for some people.
Same for our children. We love them and show them compassion, supplying their every need, for no reason other than our loving mercy. When we do not, their lives are like hell.
Never forget that.
If we want the blessing of whole adult offspring, we must humble ourselves and patiently endure the working and waiting.
The masses…
Most people today are characterized by impatience and love of ease. They are motivated by immediate and shallow rewards. They seem unwilling to work and wait. They are lured by lottery, credit card debt, and get-rich-quick schemes. They look to preachers who will feed this attitude, teaching Godliness as a means of gain. They have itching ears.
Quitting seems easier.
We should work and wait for the autumn rains. Really.
Don’t quit.
Especially do not quit on your family.
The preacher said:
Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Luke 2:34-35
So went the prophecy spoken over Jesus and Mary when he was presented at the temple as a new-born. A sword would pierce her soul.
We see the Cross differently than Mary did. We see the punishment for our sin, the Lamb of God, atonement, salvation, and eternal life. We look back at the Crucifixion. We gloss over the agony of the Cross because we cannot imagine such horror. Mary saw it as it was happening. She saw her child suffering.
But it was happening before Mary’s horrified eyes: Her child’s blood running down, His labored gasps for air, nails piercing his hands and feet. And there was nothing she could do to help her child.
She saw her child publicly disgraced as He hung naked on the Cross. Crucifixion was intended to be humiliating and painful as a deterrent to crime. All the pride Mary felt for her son was now turned to disgrace in the public eye.
She saw the death of her hopes and dreams. This was the son who was to care for her in old age. This was the son who had achieved so much fame. Her hopes and dreams were great but now they were crushed. Her son was dying. She felt like dying, too.
At the Cross, a sword pierced Mary’s soul. While Jesus purposely suffered to redeem us, Mary was there unwillingly, weeping over the injustice, watching her son die a cruel death. The sword was piercing the heart of a mother’s love.
Jesus was dying for her sins as well, but He also knew what she was suffering. Therefore, as her son, He provided for her future on earth, as well as in Heaven, while He hung on the Cross.
When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:26-27
The cost of our salvation includes shame, suffering, and sacrifice. Willingly, Jesus walked into such a death for us, with a love greater than a mother’s.
Every priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said:
“The time is coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
When I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
And I turned away from them, declares the Lord
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews 8:2 NIV
For photos of a life-size replica of the tabernacle, go here!
We almost always view these lovely creations from above, but lately, at night, I have seen the underside of this poor thing as it tried to batter itself through this screen into my house. I went outdoors in the morning and took a photo of it, knowing I would need it for the next photo challenge, and sure enough, I did.
I enjoy when this happens, when I “just know” I will need the photo for the future. That happened with the bear I photographed so long ago, and many other times.
Most of us look at most things from the upper side, from the more presentable side, from above. How few times we know anything of the underworkings, of the heart of a matter! No one can tell the moth spent hours battering itself to no avail. “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, you’ve seen, anyone has seen. We cannot know until we walk a mile in each others’ shoes. How the feet hurt!
Next time we look at a seeming beautiful exterior, let’s remember: There is another side.
Reach out to everyone you can. You will be surprised.
The preacher said:
Forgiveness is not a feeling.
What an amazing statement. How often we get hung up, seemingly crippled about forgiveness, thinking we cannot do it because we do not feel it!
And how liberating to realize it is not a feeling!
No, forgiveness is a command.
We must forgive, just as we must honor property rights. I don’t always FEEL LIKE allowing my neighbor to keep his lovely flowers, but I must leave them in his yard. Digging them up is stealing.
I also do not always feel like forgiving, but I must. Holding someone in unforgiveness is sin, just as theft is.
For insight on how to forgive, look here.
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