Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Patient. Waiting on God in Difficult Times

BE PATIENT

Published by David C. Cook

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no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version

of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the

New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Used by permission; NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright

1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved; NIV are taken

from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984

International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved; WUEST

are taken from The New Testament: An Expanded Translation by Kenneth S. Wuest,

1961 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; TLB are taken from The Living

Bible , 1971, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60189. Used by permission;

and MOFFATT are taken from The Bible: A New Translation 1922, 1935 by Harper &

Row, Publishers, Inc. 1950, 1954 by James A. R. Moffatt. Used by permission.

LCCN 2009923015

ISBN 978-1-4347-6741-7

1991 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Patient by Warren W. Wiersbe published by Victor Books

in 1991 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 978-0-89693-896-0

The Team: Karen Lee-Thorp, Amy Kiechlin, Jack Campbell, and Susan Vannaman

Series Cover Design: John Hamilton Design

Cover Photo: Veer Images

Second Edition 2009

With deep appreciation to our prayer partners (you know who you are) whose prayer support and encouragement have been greatly used of God.

We thank our God upon every remembrance of you.

And we are praying for you!

CONTENTS

The Big Idea: An Introduction to Be Patient by Ken Baugh

A Word from the Author

1. The Drama Begins (Job 13)

Interlude

2. Discussion Begins (Job 47)

3. The Discussion Continues (Job 810)

Interlude

4. An Angry Younger Man (Job 1114)

5. Discussion Turns into Dispute (Job 1517)

Interlude

6. Will the Real Enemy Please Stand Up? (Job 1819)

7. It All Depends on Your Point of View (Job 2021)

Interlude

8. Order in the Court! (Job 2224)

9. How Faint a Whisper! (Job 2528)

10. I Rest My Case! (Job 2931)

11. Elihu Has the Answers (Job 3233)

12. Elihu Explains and Defends God (Job 3437)

Interlude

13. The Final Examination (Job 3842)

Postlude

The Big Idea

An Introduction to Be Patient
by Ken Baugh

Pain is the universal experience of all human beings. Everyone experiences pain at some point in their lives, and during that season of suffering, they often ask the same question: Why? Why, God? Why now? What did I do to deserve this? These are haunting questions that echo within our minds and find no real answer.

To be honest, sometimes we bring seasons of suffering on ourselves, dont we? If we run a red light, well get a ticket. If we fudge on our taxes and get caught, well be audited and fined. If we neglect our teeth for years, well get cavities and gingivitis and need root canals. These periods of suffering are self-inflicted, brought on solely by our own carelessness and neglect.

However, there are times when pain kicks the door down in our lives unexpectedly and seemingly undeservedly, and we find ourselves face down on the pavement with no clue as to why. This is exactly where we find Job. One moment hes a healthy, wealthy, successful businessman and dedicated father. The next moment bandits have raided, pillaged his assets, and destroyed his property. All his children are killed, and his body becomes infected with horrible boils and open, festering wounds. And Job has no idea why. He hasnt done anything wrong. He hasnt sinned against God; he hasnt cheated on his wife or abused his children. Hes done nothing to deserve any of this.

And then, to make matters worse, it seems like all this pain and suffering is the result of some weird bet that God has made with Satan. (See Job 1:619; 2:19.) Yet, in spite of all of this tragedy, the Bible says, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing (Job 1:22 NIV ). Job was a man of great endurance and patience in the midst of intense suffering, and I believe that we can learn to be same if we follow his example. Lets see what we can learn about suffering from Jobs example.

The very first thing that Job did after he lost his wealth and his children was to worship God: At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: Naked I came from my mothers womb, and naked I will depart. The L ORD gave and the L ORD has taken away; may the name of the L ORD be praised (Job 1:2021 NIV ). Job recognized that everything he had was a gift from God. God had given him his family, all his material possessions, even his success. And Job believed that if God gave, He could also take away. At this point Job didnt question God. He recognized His sovereignty in his life, and he fell to the ground in worship. Job worshipped God in the midst of his physical suffering and said to his wife: Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? (Job 2:10 NIV ). Job was able to maintain his confidence in Gods sovereignty in the midst of adversity. This confidence gave him incredible patience. If you want to be able to patiently endure seasons of suffering, you must recognize, like Job, that God is sovereign in your life and that He is working everything out according to His plan for your life.

Second, if you want to be able to patiently endure suffering like Job, dont ask God to explain Himself. Job was human like the rest of us, and he was angry with God at times for allowing these tragic events to occur in his life. But his trust in God never wavered. The ability to trust God in the midst of suffering is a difficult task, yet one of the things that helps me is to remember Gods faithfulness to me in the past. Today I can look back at times of suffering in my own life that happened years ago and see Gods faithfulness throughout. I couldnt see it as clearly at the time, but today I have a much better understanding of it all. This ability to see Gods faithfulness in the past has helped me wait patiently on God in present difficulties, knowing that He is faithful. I know Hes working in the midst of this current crisis just like He has in the past, and I need to trust Him.

I like how Brennan Manning addresses this issue of trust:

Unwavering trust is a rare and precious thing because it often demands a degree of courage that borders on the heroic. When the shadow of Jesus cross falls across our lives in the form of failure, rejection, abandonment, betrayal, unemployment, loneliness, depression, the loss of a loved one; when we are deaf to everything but the shriek of our own pain; when the world around us suddenly seems a hostile, menacing placeat those times we may cry out in anguish, How could a loving God permit this to happen? At such moments the seeds of distrust are sown. It requires heroic courage to trust in the love of God no matter what happens to us. ( Ruthless Trust [New York: HarperCollins, 2000], 34)