Be Patient and Build Fervently
Be Patient, Build for the King, Expect His Return
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. (8) Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. James 5 (KJV)
Be Patient Till Our King Returns
Brothers, be patient for the coming of the ultimate judge, the Lord Jesus Christ. All around the western world we see the psychological persecution of those committed to the King of kings. Christians in the West are not being tortured and killed physically, but their souls and mind are.
We must remain patient for Christ’s return and His judgement no matter what persecution we face in this life. Our association with Christ raises the ire of the unsaved world and is the source of all persecution upon the Church. This is because Christians are the tangible entity that represents the living and true God that the enemy rages against.
Even though this new persecution of Western Christianity has no visible scars, it is still suffering for the sake of Christ. We must bear this modern persecution with the same heroic resolve as the martyrs of the early Church.
Fortunately, the evil we see in the world is not perpetual. Christ will stop it and restore order upon his return. The book of Revelation is a call to the Church to endure through times of persecution while showing us that God judges wicked nations.
Have this good hope planted in your mind while you sow the seeds to help bring in Christ’s Kingdom.
The Husbandman and His Fruit
James gives us a picture of a husbandman patiently waiting for his fruit to grow and for the harvest to arrive. This is to our edification, for we must plant and water seeds until the fullness of times when Christ returns. We are husbandmen of this earth in spiritual matters because we are the body of Christ.
Paul shares a similar picture in 2 Timothy 2:6, where he says:
“The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.”
Work must be done, labor has to occur, if any fruit is to come to the saints both now and in the future. We must not be anxious in these tumultuous times, but labor and sow for Christ’s Kingdom.
The fruit which James speaks of he calls precious because it’s nourishment. As actual fruit is to the physical body, so is the fruit we sow for the body of Christ. Everything we plant and take care of for the Church is nourishment for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
However, we must suspend our desire to gather the fruit of which we plant and instead think into the generations of our children, grandchildren, and their children. Our decedents will benefit most from what we build for Christ’s Kingdom.
Don’t be hasty in building nor disheartened in the likelihood of not benefiting from the seeds you sow. There may be many more generations before Christ’s return. If we don’t start planting now, then our children will have no protection from the spiritual heat around them.
Properly Establish Your Heart
Though I am convinced that we are to build up, and mirror, the Kingdom of Christ here on earth, we must be careful and properly establish our hearts. To establish our hearts is to be sure they are in, and stay in, the correct place. It’s too easy to build something such as a business and get swept away into the cares of the world, forgetting the reason we started building.
James tells us in verse 8 to “stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
Which seems to go against what we just talked about, working to build for generations to come. This is to keep our hearts and minds in the right place while putting in the work for Christ our King, lest we forget Him all together.
There is something special when working to build for your children’s children while expecting our King to return at any moment. It produces families, businesses, communities, and all else in an explicitly Christian manner. A manner that the world can not reproduce because the world does not have the hope which we have in Christ.
So, brothers, work for the Lord Jesus Christ in all you do. Build families, build communities, build businesses to be a blessing to the body of Christ for future generations.
Do so knowing our King’s return is imminent regardless of our perception.
Attention: My Brother in Christ
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