Going Deeper – James 5:7-11

Title and Text: “Patient Faith” – James 5:7-11

Connect:

• Do you consider yourself a patient person?  In what ways do you practice patience?  In what areas are you more likely to be impatient or impulsive?

Cultivate:

• James encourages the church to wait patiently for the return of Christ (v 7).  How can we patiently wait for Christ while not becoming lazy in witness or escapist in hope?
• What alternatives to patient endurance through present suffering does the church commonly choose?  Why do you think these ways aren’t commended to us in the scriptures? (Or are they?)
• What good character develops in us through patiently enduring hardships?  Compare what James says in this passage with the opening section of chapter one.
• As “an example of suffering and patience” James cites the prophets (v 10) and Job (v 11).  What contemporary examples of patient faith have your witnessed?  What opportunities have you had to cultivate and demonstrate patience and steadfastness?
• What considerations (theological and practical) can help us endure the present chaos of this world and maintain eager expectancy for the world to come? (Hint: Your responses can begin with what James writes in this passage but need not be limited to it).

Commission:

• In Rev. 13:10 and 14:12 the apostle John calls for endurance and faith through suffering.  We wish for escape from or destruction of the world, but God desires its redemption, and he uses our patient endurance to bring it to pass.  Consider your own present pain and pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you with spiritual fortitude to endure with faith to the end, and that by your steadfastness, God may bring others to repentance and salvation.

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