The Perfect Gift

Just this morning I was reading Oswald Chambers, his text was James 1:4. In this passage James entreats us to a goal. That goal, perfect completion lacking nothing, is a major life destination.

When you begin to think about a life that is lacking nothing, that is perfect and complete, it makes you wonder “who left me out of the loop”. I mean really, could there be a better place to live than that?

James writes; “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (New King James Version)

Some of the translators use words like endurance and perseverance when helping us to understand what the Holy Spirit via James was really trying to tell us.

But no matter how you slice and dice it, or translate it, the Holy Spirit of God has called and is calling each of us to a place of PATIENCE.

Remember that fourth fruit of the Spirit?

I think the reason patient endurance of all sorts is so critical to our walk of faith is because therein lays the proving ground of a) who we are in Christ and b) a tested level of growth in Him.

Please don’t ever assume your Christian maturity if you find yourself impatient and curt with others. And please don’t ever bemoan your need for something in life when the simple act of waiting just drives you nuts. Because waiting, being patient, enduring time when your wants or needs are held at bay IS the proving ground for genuine Christian faith.

Faith is not proven by going to church, reading your Bible, taking communion or any number of other patterns found in typical Christian life and practice. On the contrary, mature faith is found when we are pressed to WAIT for something.

Waiting becomes a vice that squeezes you until the juice of your real self begins to leak out. And what leaks out determines the readiness of your faith. Is the juice sour and acrid or is it sweet and satisfying? And keep in mind that judgment of ones patience lays at the feet of those who surround us. We are not the ones who judge if our patience is right enough, but it is those who are functioning in God’s hand as the vice.

So the next time you feel imperfect, incomplete, and lacking all sorts of things in life, check your patience level. You just might need a tune up (you’re probably getting one and you don’t even realize it). And that tune up will come under the duress of waiting.

Let me give you the Perfect Gift: The gift of WAITING. If you’re patient, that gift may arrive today, or tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day, or the next.

Don’t worry, it will arrive eventually. Galatians 6:9