Episode 4 James

The speaker discusses the importance of patience and trusting in God. He uses the analogy of a farmer waiting for his crops to emphasize the need to be patient while waiting for God's plans to unfold. He also shares personal experiences and encourages listeners to have faith and seek God's guidance in their lives. The speaker emphasizes the commandment to be strong and courageous and not be afraid, despite the challenges and uncertainties of life. He concludes by highlighting the importance of following Jesus and reading the Bible to find strength and encouragement. Overall, the message is about finding hope and trust in God in difficult times. Welcome to, I Believe He's Not Done Yet, with Bill Naylan. Hello everyone, this week we're going to be looking at James chapter 5, verse 7 and 8. Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield his valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and firm, because the Lord's coming is near. That's another powerful verse. James is comparing a farmer waiting all summer long for his crops to grow, and praying for that autumn and spring rain to help feed his crops so they can grow. So too, must we wait and be patient. I've said many times, I'm not a patient person. God has been teaching me on this. Be patient. No, it's not easy when you starve for the truth or what lies ahead. I shared having some prophecy over me that they saw me lying in a canoe and not looking to see where I was going. Well, I'm the one who wants to look. I'm the one who wants to look out the window on a trip to see where we are, where we are going and how soon we will get there. I don't like not knowing whether or not the company I'm working for is going to go bankrupt or they will expand. I want to know what's ahead. I can use the excuse that I need to know so I can prepare. That's not always the case. When I moved back home with my parents and my sister, dad's health was declining, not a lot, but slowly. When we got to the point of hospice, I knew his end was near. But like all of us, we didn't know when we will lose a loved one, either by sickness, old age, or by accident. I think in my mind I knew dad was going to die, but it wasn't until the moment that he did that I dealt with it. I've used the example of a woman being pregnant for nine months. She knows the baby won't be born soon, but doesn't know what day. And lots of times, her and the baby's father freak out on the birthday. Same with my dad passing away. I didn't know how to deal with it until it happened. We can't always prepare for what life gives us. We can't predict the future. Believe me, nothing in my life was predicted to me. I had to adapt to everything. Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was very hard. For example, I drove a public bus years ago, one of those big long ones like you see in the big cities in Chicago and whatnot. Those things are a little scary to drive at first, but once you get the feel of it, it's kind of fun. Anyways, as part of training, you had to explain every part of the bus. Yes, every part except maybe the details on the engine, but you had to go through and say about the windshield wipers, the headlights, the parking lights, the hazard lights, the door, the emergency release for the door, the door open, how you closed it, everything about the bus. Well, I had a hard time doing that. And the training manager told me one day, Bill, if you don't memorize this, you're not going to continue on the job. I went home and studied hard. I spent two to three days memorizing it until I had it down. I was never good at memorizing, but I strived to do it and passed. My point is there are rewards for being patient, just like the farmer has a great crop and can pay his bills. We do get a reward for being patient until the Lord comes. I know some of our lives aren't good. You see all the depressing things on the news every day, and it will get you down. But if you look to God, put your faith in him to get through all this, he will help you. My life is a perfect example. It wasn't easy to get where I am. And every day it's a challenge to do what is expected of me. I think this is mentioned a lot in the New Testament and how we live our life. I think it's important to know that God is on our side and we can go to him for help. But not just to go to him for help, but also just to talk. Many times I would just find myself a quiet spot, close my eyes and talk to God. Yes, I believe he would talk to me. Not that I heard him, but I felt it, that he spoke to me. Does that make sense? Joshua chapter 1 verse 9 says, Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be wherever you go. Be strong and courageous. It's a commandment. I know, I know, you're trying. We all are. But when we have doubts, we have to think of this verse. Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid. We all get afraid. I do. Everyone does if they want to be honest with themselves. I'm afraid when I leave for work in the morning. Will I get there okay? Will I get in an accident? Will my mom be okay? Will I find her gone when I get home? What will happen to me when she's gone? I have to sell the family home, find a new place to live, move to another state most likely. Yes, it's scary. It makes me afraid. Getting older each year or each day makes me think, how long do I have? I know, I can live to be 100. No! But it's something that makes me think, am I doing what I want to do? Did I accomplish all that I wanted to do? Have I done the right thing by God? Am I the man God wants me to be or did I fail him? But he says here, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Don't be discouraged. I mean, it's 2024, look at the world around you. Crime, suffering, sickness, wars, homelessness, drugs. I could go on, but you get the point. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Now I know you can say, wait a minute Bill, what about 9-11? Didn't some of them think God is with them? Maybe so. I'm sure they went to heaven that morning. I don't have all the answers. I'd like to know why God takes people like he did in 9-11 or when they get murdered or killed by a drunk driver or get shot. But I'm sure, I'm positive that God has his reasons. But I think this is part of trusting in God. No matter what happens, we have to trust him. Romans 5, verse 1 says, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen, huh? I just want to briefly mention something that I spoke about a couple of episodes ago. And that was when I contemplated suicide. And I know suicide is up in this country, around the world, I'm sure. And you get to the point where you don't feel like it's worth going on. You want to give up on life. I know I did. I wasn't doing any of the things that I wanted to do. I was a dropout in school. I never went to college. I struggled from job to job to find the right job. I tried to do the right thing. But it seemed like I kept failing. But one thing my dad told to somebody once, is that someone asked him, if you could be anybody, who would you be? And my dad said, I would be Bill. And they said, why? And he said, because no matter what scrape he gets into, what issue he has, he's still what issue he has, somehow he always gets out of it. And at first I was kind of upset about it. And I thought, wow, he thinks I'm a screw up. But no, he saw that no matter what came across my path, I do it. And that's what we all need to do. But we can only do it with God. We have to look to God. We have to go to him and talk to him. Pour your heart out to him. I know it seems strange to sit in a room and talk out loud to somebody. Kind of like what I'm doing now, sitting in a room by myself, speaking into a microphone. But we can do that to God and just say, God, I'm here. I need your help. I can't do this anymore. I'm struggling. I'm not happy. I'm not doing what I want to be doing. But then you have to look at that though. I'm not doing what I want to be doing. What is God's purpose? I believe he wants us to be happy, healthy, sustainable. But I think the bottom line is, he wants us to have eternal life with him. And how do we go about that? We need to follow Jesus. We need to trust in him. We need to read the Bible daily so that when we have issues that come up, we can go back and say, be strong and courageous. Don't be discouraged. And when something gets you down, you just think in your head, be strong, Bill, be courageous. You can do this. God will be with you. You got this. And I really believe that if you trust in God, if you put your faith in him, he will do it. Believe me, my life is an example of it. I went from at a point I had been in trouble with the law. I was on probation. I was having to pay a fine. I didn't have a regular job. I was going to church, but I'm not sure I was going to church. I'm not sure what all that entailed, that I thought I was a believer, but looking back on it now, I think I was fooling myself because I don't think I really understood what was going on then. And I'm not saying I wasn't a believer then. I was, but I didn't grasp the scope. But I was getting into trouble. Of course, I dropped out of high school. I didn't have any college. I was in trouble with the law. And at one point, the judge said, 30 days in jail, and it scared the living daylights out of me. And I thought, I can't do this. I can't do this. I don't want to go to jail. That's why I see some of these cop programs and I see some of the people, I saw this one over the weekend where I said, I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to lose everything I have. Long story short, went to jail again. But in my case, I was blessed that I had a counselor that wrote a letter and said, you know, Bill's doing really good. He's trying to do better. I think it would be a step backwards to put him in jail. And thankfully, by the grace of God, I didn't have to do that. But I remember I was so close to that. And I realized, Bill, you got to get your life on track. I started working. I worked hard, like I said, on the bus job. I had to memorize the stuff on the bus. It wasn't easy. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I've had many jobs over the years. And a lot of it, I didn't know anything about it when I started. When I started working at the lumberyard, I knew what a two by four was, but I didn't know how you put it together, different ones together to build a house. I knew you used a nail, didn't know which direction you'd pound the nail in or shoot the nail in or whatever it may be. And eventually I did well on the job. I studied the materials. I learned about the tools. I learned about the processes. I learned how to build a house so that when somebody came in and said, I need this, I knew what they needed and how they were going to use it. When I went and started selling flooring, I didn't know anything about floors, vinyl or hardwood or all these other different ones. I knew basically solid hardwood. I knew what vinyl floor were, but I didn't know the details of them. Now I can tell you what the top layer is, what the bottom layer is, but I didn't know details of them. Now I can tell you what the, how thick they are, how durable they are, what the wear layer is, how you install it, what you can put underneath it, what would make it sound better when you walk across it. All that stuff, I learned how to do it. I love to research. I have family members that has a disease and I'm not going to say what it was because I want to be very clear, but when I found out, I Googled and I read everything that I could about it. And when I talked to them later on and asked questions, they were shocked. How did you know that? Well, I looked it up. I was curious. I was curious. Yes, today's day and age, we have Google, we have the internet. We can search online. We can say, Hey Alexa, and it'll come up what we want an answer for. And yeah, some stuff is obvious online. Some stuff you can learn a lot. And that's how I've learned so much over the years. I've seeked out the information. What I'm getting at here is we have a Bible that teaches us how to live. I would say the Old Testament is kind of a history book on how the church started before Jesus came. But in the New Testament, there's a wealth of information there to teach us how to live our lives. There's encouragement there. There's lessons. There's people we can look up to in there. And all Jesus is saying, come to me. Come to me. Look to me. Follow me. You can do it. I did it with God's help. So can you. I pray for each and every person listening to this message. I pray that whatever they're dealing with today, they would look to you. They would push the burden off onto you. That they would talk to you. Say everything that's in their heart to you. Even though you already know. Let them pour their heart out. And shower them with your love. Surround them with wisdom and understanding. And get through what we need to do. Guide them. Give them wisdom. Give them wisdom. Bless them. Thank you all for listening. See you next week.