December 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

James 5:1-11:

¹Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
²Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten.
³Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
⁴Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
⁵Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
⁶Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
⁷Be 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.
⁸Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
⁹Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
¹⁰Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
¹¹Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

Devotional

How patient God is with us sinners! If He would deal with us after our sins, and reward us according to our iniquities, we could not stand before him for a moment. But He is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." He is patient and longsuffering even with impenitent sinners. Was He not patient in the time of Noah when He delayed his righteous judgment 120 years? Does He not "endure with much longsuf­fering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compas­sions fail not."

How impatient we are—impatient with one another, and impatient even with God! Because we are so impatient, the com­munion of saints is often disturbed, and there is no unity of spirit. It behooves us to pray that the God of patience may grant us to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. And why? That we "may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

And how patient we should be when we are called to suffer for Christ's sake, or in times of other afflictions! We must be patient in tribulation. If we keep the word of (his) patience, He will keep us from the hour of temptation that comes upon all the earth. "Wherefore . . . . let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Prayer

O Thou God of patience, we thank Thee that we know that Thou dost not deal with us after our sins, nor reward us according to our iniquities. Thou art patient and longsuffering with Thy erring children. Thou art gracious and full of compas­sion, ready to forgive Thy repentant children. May we also be ready to forgive those who have sinned against us. Grant us to be like-minded one toward the other according to Christ Jesus; that we may with one mind, and one mouth, glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ's sake. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Ps. 103:8; 1 Pet. 3:20; Rom. 9:22; Lam. 3:22: Rom. 15:5, 6; 12:12; Rev. 3:20

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