A 21 day Prayer and Fasting Devotional (Nov. 1-21, 2023)
Day 8
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
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.
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.
Activation
- How have past trials produced fruit you are currently enjoying in your life?
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any areas in which you need to let patience have its perfect work in your life.
Prepared and edited by:
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| Armando P. Mariano |
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