Live Free with Josh Howerton - Wait Actively and Live Dependently | Ep. 344 | Thursday, May 30, 2024

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Do you love waiting? Probably not. However, James calls us to wait patiently like a farmer. We are to work hard but also wait expectantly. God is trustworthy and we can rest in Him, knowing with confidence that His will is being done in our lives. God’s timing is perfect, and He has a purpose for our waiting. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.com. church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. I'm Mike Bro, and we hang here Monday through Friday for a few minutes

diving into God's Word and just trying to capture his heart and grow to be a little bit more like Jesus. And we've been trekking through a letter in the back of the Bible written by a guy named James. And this is not the James of Peter, James, and John fame, but the brother of Jesus, who goes from being an unbeliever in his big brother to a fully devoted follower of his.

and he becomes a leader in the early church, and he actually dies for his faith in 62 AD. In this letter, he writes as Frank, it is honest, it is practical, and it's encouraging. And today in Chapter 5, it is all of those things. Now, before we jump in, let me ask, how many of you just love to wait? You just love to wait.

If you were putting together a resume, you would list, I'm a good waiter. Not like a Chili's or Outback. I'm a good waiting person. I just love to wait. In fact, when the elevator takes forever to get to me, and then somebody pushes all the buttons, man, I love that. When traffic stacks up and I have to drive five miles an hour in a sweltering heat,

I love it. I get a thrill when my flight is delayed, especially when we finally get on, then we have to get back off because an armrest on the seat was broken. Man, I love it. When that happens, and man, when I'm in line at the grocery store and somebody in front of me has 33 items and the 15 items only line, I thrive on that.

I just love. I just love the weight. None of us. Really likes to wait, do we are 5G high-speed internet microwavable food people. Let's get on with it, right? Well, James writes this in verse 7. Dear brothers and sisters, Be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring.

They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You too must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. Now, I love this image of a farmer. If any of you all grew up on a farm or if you have a garden, then you know what James is talking about here. You wait with a reasonable hope and anticipation of a good crop. Now, you may have to wait a long time,

but you keep on working while you wait. You wait with your eye on the sky. You wait for rain. You wait for sunshine. You wait as other people are working as well. You wait aware just of how seasons work. You wait because as time goes on, it becomes more important to wait expectantly

because too soon, and you'll ruin everything that you've been waiting on. James is going back to how he started this letter. He was writing to those who were being scattered and persecuted for their love for Jesus, and he uses examples of the Old Testament prophets and guys like Job who went through a lot of tough things, but they waited on the Lord, and he came through.

So he'd writing again, hang in there, wait, persevere, it'll get better soon. He's coming back soon, just patiently, wait. And I've always loved these verses from Psalm 37 and say, trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him and he will do it.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Wait, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. relax in the strength, the power, the presence, the wisdom of God, and wait patiently for him to act. And wouldn't you know it, unlike us, God is never in a hurry. Now to rest in God means to actively link up our lives with the purposes that he wants to accomplish through us today and to relax in the confidence that his will is being done in our lives, even while we have to wait for specific answers.

See, waiting is an active thing. You just wait actively and you live dependently. It says in that scripture you trust in the Lord and you do good while you wait. You dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness while you wait. Let me close by going back to the very first chapter. I want to read it from the message translation, verses 2 through 4 in chapter 1. James says, consider it a sheer gift, friends, when test and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure your faith life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely.

So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you can become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. You see, good things come to those who weight, crops, and character. Let's not try to get out of anything prematurely, and let's rest in the Lord and wait actively and live dependently. I'll see you back tomorrow. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m.

and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.