Establish Your Heart
James 5:8 You also, be patient.
Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
I referenced football earlier, about digging in and fighting through. Well, that’s kind of what establishing your heart looks like but in a little different way. Instead of saying you’re going to fight through the situation, and I’m going to handle it on my own. By establishing my heart on the Lord, by taking that step of faith saying, “I cannot do this alone. I am worn out, exhausted from the anxiety and worry I’m dealing with, but I’m going to establish my heart. I’m going to fix my heart’s focus on one point, and that’s going to be Jesus. I’m going to establish my heart, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” That’s a long time. It’s been almost 2,000 years since James wrote this, and he said then that the coming of the Lord was at hand. That’s a long time to us, but it’s not a long time to him. A thousand years is as a day to him. We count in hours and days, God counts in millennia. He’s coming VERY soon according to His timeline! We are going to establish our hearts, why? Because He is our hope. Hebrews talks about the anchor we have for our souls, this anchor we can establish our soul and heart in the knowledge and trust that Jesus is coming soon. Here’s the question: what if he wasn’t coming back? What if Jesus never said “I”ll be back?” What if when the apostles were watching Jesus leave, the angels hadn’t said, “This same Jesus is coming back?” What if they’d said, “He gone!” Where’s the hope in that? There is no hope! Jesus didn’t leave it with that! He said he’s going to prepare a place for us, and then he’s going to come back to get us. Because of that, we have our hope set in Him, so we can be patient, and we can see what patience looks like and what it feels like.
What is the coming of the Lord?
What is the coming of the Lord?
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,
that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,
will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,
and so we will always be with the Lord.
that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,
will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,
and so we will always be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5 goes on to say “that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (v2) and we should “keep awake and be sober” (v6) “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. (v9-10)
It comes back to this: when we’d say be patient and establish your hearts, remember the rope analogy? It’s recognizing that there’s so much more to that rope than just our little red piece of tape. Put all this in perspective: Yes, life is difficult right now, this situation sucks and I hate it and don’t want to be in it, but when I put it in perspective, I still have the hope in me that this too will pass. I’m going to establish my heart on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. What does that, practically, look like? Remember the first chapter of James?
James 1:2-4 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect,
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect,
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.