Practice Patience
James 1:4
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
What is Patience? [It is] a gracious temper, wrought in the heart of a believer, by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is a disposition to suffer whatever pleases God, in the manner and for that time that pleases him.
What is the perfect work of patience? Is it anything less than the perfect love of God, constraining us to love every soul of man, even as Christ loved us? Is it not the whole of religion, the whole mind which was also in Christ Jesus? Is it not the renewal of our soul in the image of God, after the likeness of him that created us? And is not the fruit of this, the constant resignation of ourselves, body and spirit, to God; entirely giving up all we are, all we have, and all we love, as a holy sacrifice, acceptable unto God through the Son of his love? It seems this is the perfect work of patience, consequent upon the trial of our faith.
Ye shall then be perfect. The Apostle seems to mean by this expression [that] ye shall be wholly delivered from every evil work; from every evil word; from every sinful thought; yea, from every evil desire, passion, temper; from all inbred corruption, from all remains of the carnal mind, from the body of sin; and ye shall be renewed in the spirit of your mind, in every right temper, after the image of Him that created you, in righteousness and true holiness. Ye shall be entire.
This seems to refer, not so much to the kind as to the degree of holiness; as if he had said, Ye shall enjoy as high a degree of holiness as is consistent with your present state of pilgrimage;and ye shall want nothing; the Lord being your Shepherd, your Father, your Redeemer, your Sanctifier, your God, and your all, will feed you with the bread of heaven, and give you meat enough. He will lead you forth beside the waters of comfort, and keep you every moment.
John Wesley, Works.
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