The Patience of the Father's Love
Greetings, 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 the
meaning of the patience of the Father's Love.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Patience of the Father's Love
"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, ponder this story: Once upon a time, there lived a very wise man who wanted
to create the color of light, and to have friends who could enjoy this color of light, as well as a
fragrance that he had prepared. He had three colored lights. First, there was the red color of truth.
Next, there was the green color of beauty. Last, there was the blue color of goodness. He mixed the
red color of truth with the blue color of goodness and obtained a powerful happy character. Then he
mixed the red color of truth with the green color of beauty, and obtained a righteous happy character.
Finally he mixed the red color of truth with the green color of beauty and the blue color of goodness.
He obtained a powerful, righteous, and happy character of light. After achieving the color of light
of love that he wanted, he turned this light on and filled a very dark room with it, lightening the room
with a brilliant white light of love.
Next, he took a bottle of pure spirit fragrance, removed the stopper, and set it in the center of the
room. Periodically, he would inspect the room to see if the fragrance had diffused. At first the
fragrance was only located at the center of the room, but with the passing of time, the fragrance
gradually filled the entire room. He then invited all of his friends to join him and bask in the
marvelous light of love and enjoy the marvelous spirit fragrance.
Brothers and sisters, the heavenly Father sends each and everyone of us an invitation to join with him
in his marvelous light of love and his pure spirit fragrance in the form of his gift of love-his divine
spirit. In his usual modest and unselfish manner, he sends this gift to live in our minds and souls
unannounced and unnoticed. This divine gift makes it possible for us to love others divinely--
unselfishly. This gift is the source of all faith, goodness, and love, and has the power to transform
the proud, rough, and greedy mortal character into the immortal character of meekness, gentleness,
and temperance, and the power to give this same character peace, joy, long suffering in the place of
anxiety, sorrow, and impatience.
Urges spring from two sources, though to our consciousness the sources appear as one. Those urges
associated with the self that have a purely selfish motive emerge from our material natures. Those
drives associated with the unselfish interest of our brothers and sisters emerge from the divine self
within us--the gift of love. Without this divine gift, it would be impossible for us to choose aught
but our own selfish interest.
The urges of self preservation, self procreation, and self gratification are all functions of our material
selves, and in some way these urges must be satisfied. Without the divine gift, we would be
conscious only of what we want for ourselves. Because of the divine gift, we can become conscious
of the true needs of other selves and how best to meet those needs.
The Father's gift of love seeks to infiltrate the desires of self with the hope of transforming those
desires into the desires of the divine self, but it must patiently wait while we, first, become conscious
of these divine lures and, second, learn how to choose them. The divine spirit cannot choose for us.
It must wait patiently even though it knows if we choose these lures, we will be happy eternally since
peace, joy, and long suffering are the essence of spiritual happiness.
And how this gift of love suffers as we choose evil rather than good. It suffers painfully with us as
we reap the awful harvest of evil and the disappointing sorrow of error. And how this gift of love
rejoices in pleasure when we choose goodness and experience truth. But mostly it waits as we draw
near the divine embrace, only to subsequently forsake it time and again.
We and the divine gift are like water and oil. As long as the two are shaken together, they remain
together. When the shaking ceases they separate out--oil on top, water on the bottom. As long as we
choose the Father's will, our souls and spirit remain together; when we forsake the Father's will, our
souls separate from the divine spirit. Sometimes this seems like a hopeless situation, this mixing and
remixing. But the gift of love is courageous and determined. It is willing to wait.
The divine spirit knows that eventually we will forever forsake the temporary joys of evil and the
temporary peace of error for the eternal joys of goodness and everlasting peace of truth. We may give
up, but never does the gift of love. It does not matter to what depth of darkness we may descend:
always does this gift have the power to raise us to the heights of divine light.
Although the divine spirit knows that if we choose the divine lure we choose well, it must patiently
wait for us to choose the beauty of a righteous character. It must forbear while we experience the
ugliness of pride, greed, and roughness--unrighteousness. And though it knows that we will choose
power if we choose the divine lure, it must patiently wait until we make such a choice. But
eventually the divine patience of the Father's love prevails as we finally, after countless ups and
downs on the elevator of evils, choose the way of the divine gift.
Eventually the desire to accept the divine invitation actualizes in our minds and souls to become one
that will never change. With this never-ending desire and the endless power of the gift of love, the
temporal oil of our souls and the eternal living water of the divine gift are forever mixed. No one can
separate the two or distinguish the one from the other. And now we who have becomes the sons and
daughters of the heavenly Father enter the room with the brilliant white light of love to enjoy the
spiritual fragrance of divine goodness, everlasting truth, and indescribable beauty.
This concludes today's message on the meaning of the patience of the Father's love. 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.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
The Patience of the Father's Love
