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A Perfect Work

By Bridgette Morris

Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. —James 1:2–4 NKJV

I love to garden. I like to grow things that are what I call “purposeful plants.” Many beautiful flowers serve a purpose for sure, but my favorite plants actually produce something my family and I can eat. But the thing about gardening is that it’s easy to grow impatient even though the end result is more than worth it.

For instance, I think we can all agree that peaches are delicious and juicy, right? And especially so when you get to pair a peach dessert with ice cream. (Who wouldn’t enjoy that?!) I live near a grocery store, so even in the dead of winter, I can go buy a can of peaches and make a cobbler. There’s a vast difference, though, in the quality of the peaches I grow versus the peaches I find on aisle three. That’s why I choose to grow my own peaches—I know they’re better for me, and they taste much better than peaches from a can.

But here’s the thing: peaches take time to grow. If my end goal is a delicious, homemade cobbler made with fresh peaches and perfectly coupled with Blue Bell ice cream, then I have to take some steps before I can arrive there. First, I buy a peach tree and plant it. Then I water it, fertilize it, and make sure bugs don’t infest it. After that, I prune the tree. All these steps happen before I see any fruit. I must be active in my waiting, or nothing will grow. I must be steadfast and have endurance to tend my garden before the fruit is even visible. If I don’t, the fruit will never grow, and weeds will overtake the nutrition meant for the intended plant.

The first chapter of James opens with this charge, which is both encouraging and challenging: “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2–4). I would love to be that, wouldn’t you? I mean, who doesn’t want to be totally complete, lacking nothing? What catches my attention about this passage is the phrase “let patience have its perfect work.” How does patience have work? As I investigated the original language, the word translated as patience in Greek is hypomonē, which means ‘cheerful endurance, constancy, or patient continuance.’ In the New Living Translation, it’s translated as “endurance,” and in the English Standard Version, it’s translated as “steadfastness.” What all these words have in common is the picture they paint—they showcase actions we take and how we can do our work. Patience can absolutely be waiting and stillness, but it can also be an act of continuing to walk out what has been laid before us for the purpose of refining and perfecting us.

Just like I do with my peach trees, if the goal in our lives is to be more Christlike—“perfect and complete, lacking nothing”—then we have to take intentional steps to get there, and one of those steps is allowing patience to have its perfect work in us. And sometimes patience looks more like consistency than stillness. I must be consistent to check on my garden while I wait for the fruit to grow. I must love my spouse consistently while we are both being transformed by the Holy Spirit. We need to be consistent with our children while they are growing into responsible adults, and we must consistently obey the Lord as He leads us into our destiny. Healthy marriages, loving parenting, and effective destinies don’t happen overnight; they all require a steadfast consistency to see them come to fruition.

Letting patience have its perfect work in you requires being on God's timeline, not your own. “Active patience” is having an attitude of submission and gratitude for His timing instead of demanding God work on your timeline. Let’s be consistent with what God has placed before us and patient with the trials we go through so that we can be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and showcase the goodness of God in the world around us.

Prayer

God, thank You that the trials we face in our lives can be used by You to better equip us for our destinies. Today we choose to let patience have its perfecting work in our lives. Please give us wisdom on how to live patiently day after day as we seek to glorify You and see Your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

For Further Reflection

1. How have past trials produced fruit you are currently enjoying in your life?
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any areas in which you need to let patience have its perfect work in your life.