1. READ James 5:7-8 How would you define patience? How do you think the biblical idea of patience might be different from the way many people think of it?
2. What does the farming analogy in James 5:7 teach us about patience?
3. In the message, we said that patience is actively trusting God’s timing. Think of a time you actively trusted God’s timing and a time you did not. What was the difference?
4. In what way is patience a gauge of my spiritual health? What’s the connection between my relationship with God and my ability to be patient?
5. The message ended with Isaiah 64:4 For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him! How does the knowledge that God is working for us as we wait with him enable us to be patient?
6. Respond to this quote from pastor John Piper: “The opposite of impatience is not a glib, superficial denial of frustration. The opposite of impatience is a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness either to wait for God where you are in the place of obedience, or to persevere at the pace he allows on the road of obedience — to wait in his place, or to go at his pace.” Which most closely describes you today–waiting in his place, going at his pace, or running your own race?
