I read James 1 & 2 today, and after a couple of conversations this week I've been thinking about patience and persistence in combination. I had never really thought much about them together before, and they seem rather difficult to practice at the same time, but I'm finding that they can work quite well together. James 1:2-4 sheds some light on the subject: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, / because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. / Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." That sounds to me like it actually requires both patience and persistence to be working together.
What kind of circumstances require patience and persistence? Well, for instance, when we are trusting God for a particular blessing, hope or purpose for the future (maybe all 3), especially when we believe it to be His will both that we receive it, and that we wait. What do we do when God says, "Yes, but not yet"? The more I look into this subject, the more cases of it that I see. Abram was 75 years old when God promised to make a great nation of him, and after 11 years he tried his own way to have a son, Ishmael, but that wasn't how God had planned to fulfill the promise. It was another 14 years before he would have another son, Isaac, the promised one according to God's plan. Throughout those 25 years, Abram (later Abraham) had to learn patience, and wait on God's timing, and he had to persist in believing God's promise, trust in God's ability to come through, and live in such a way that showed he believed it was going to happen. Other biblical examples include Joseph, Moses, David, Job and Jesus.
So, whether waiting for a wife (generally, or one particular woman), God's call on our lives or a particular ministry opportunity, the fulfilment of something that's been prophesied over us, God's coming through for us in a miraculous way, or whatever it is, there are often times to persist in trusting God for the outcome, doing it patiently, but also living in a way that shows that trust in Him.
The key of course is to seek God's will, and His timing. Sometimes we have hopes that don't line up with God's plan, and those times we often translate His "no" as "wait". As we seek Him, He makes that clear to us, and we can be confident that He has something better in mind. Other times He really is saying "wait", and we often want to translate that as "yes, and right now" when the situation has not been prepared, and when we find out that's not actually what God was saying, we assume it must be "no", out of fear. In any event, we need to seek God's wisdom, and hear Him correctly. James 1:5-8 sums it up well: "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. / But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. / That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; / he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." I know that God has the wisdom available for me, so that I can persist in His ways patiently. It's time for me to ask.
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