The Faith of Patience
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we will ponder our lives as we seek to understand the faith of patience.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Faith of Patience
"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. " James, Chapter 1, Verses 3 and 4
Brothers and sisters, in the previous broadcast we examined the truth of the patience of faith, but this morning we shall examine the truth of its mirror image--the faith of patience——and will see how it performs under observation. We shall see what happens to faith when we hold patience and what happens when patience changes in response to experiences. We will examine what these have to do with faith and how faith changes with the difficulty of the experience. We know that as we have spiritual experiences, the values and meanings that are extracted from these experiences become progressively greater. In extracting the values and meanings from the experiences, we are called upon to use faith and patience.
We have to use faith to transform potential values and meanings into the actual values and meanings concealed within experiences. And we need patience because we are extracting values and meanings from experiences that are delayed by time and handicapped by space. In short, we have to contend with a growth process. Now we know that faith and patience are qualitatively without limit, but in our discussion we want to limit these values to the exercise of them.
As we exercise faith in the face of patience and experience, our faith then equals the patience that we display in a given situation. As we have more difficult experiences, requiring more patience, our faith also increases along with the patience. When the experience is not very difficult, requiring less patience, then the amount of faith that is exercised is also less. And no matter the various combinations of experience and patience, faith is always adequate. It always adjusts to the level that is required for a given experience. There is no experience that we can have where faith will be found wanting.
Since faith is adequate for all experiences, it becomes effective in meeting all the challenges embedded in human experience. Continuing faith in God yields grace: As we exercise greater patience in the face of increasing difficult experiences, faith increases. This is important because faith changes potential values and meanings into actual values and meanings. So the more faith is exercised in conjunction with patience, the greater the actualization of spiritual values and meanings. "The world is filled with hungry souls who famish in the very presence of the bread of life; men die searching for the very God who lives within them. Men seek for the treasures of the kingdom with yearning hearts and weary feet when they are all within the immediate grasp of living faith. Faith is to religion what sails are to a ship; it is an addition of power, not an added burden of life. There is but one struggle for those who enter the kingdom, and that is to fight the good fight of faith. The believer has only one battle, and that is against doubt--unbelief."
When discouragement and impatience are allowed to enter into the experience, the effect is to reduce the amount of faith available to exercise and thus results in a decrease of divine values and meanings. It is impossible to please God without the exercise faith because the soul cannot receive the divine values and meanings that are absolutely essential for the growth of the soul. Jesus admonishes us to always pray and not faint. He said that if we exercise faith the size of a mustard seed, "it will remove mountains of material difficulty which may chance to lie in the path of soul expansion and spiritual progress."
Taken together these truths confirm that the exercise of faith the size of a mustard seed if genuine will overcome all barriers that stand in the way of spiritual growth--the comprehension of divine values and meanings, and the ever ascending journey to become perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect.
This concludes today's message on understanding the faith of patience. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Thy Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
The Faith of Patience
