Consider all that is going on in the country,

• The insecurity, its effects on safe movement, disruption of farming and
• The consequent hunger
• Hopelessness inflicted on the innocent by strikes
  • University teachers, the closed schools and the effect on our youth
  • electricity workers
  • police etc and
• Overwhelmed, unconcerned, unsympathetic and self-centred rulers

These things pose one recurring question, Does God not see? Does He not know, even if the older people have sinned, what about innocent children born into such a time?  Such is the way of our thinking as humans; our reasoning tends to be unidirectional! Have you considered that:

1. Rain still falls to cool the effect of heat?
2. The sun still shines so we can do what we need to do during the day, using sunlight for which we pay no bills, which man cannot disconnect!
3. Air is still freely available for us to breathe not subject to the wickedness and taxes of insensitive rulers and
4. All of these are still given to the earth to produce food in the areas unhindered by the wickedness of men!

Put this way, your choice of perception is critical whether you will be swamped by the negatives or enlivened by the faithfulness of our heavenly Father who continues to sustain our most basic necessities to live and be in sound health. This leads me to another rephrasing which will give us a better insight to answering the question, does God not see? etc:

Is this the changing battle of faith? And particularly relevant to the children of faith, those who have come to know and have received the saving grace of Christ expressed in His freely offered salvation. Here I will go to our main text taken from James 1:3-8.

Vs. 3,4 is best explained by the principle of equivalence taught in modern Mathematics which postulates as follows:

• If the ‘trying of your faith’ is related to ‘patience’, and
• ‘Patience’ is related to being ‘perfect and entire wanting nothing,’ then
• The ‘trying of your faith’ must result in being ‘perfect and entire wanting nothing’.

Everything we listed in the negatives above, have you considered them to be the trying of your faith? If you have not, please do! Those two verses practically demand that we allow the trying of our faith to run its course! Wow! Our emotional responses that cry for escape negate the principles of getting to maturity or perfection as the scripture puts it. Those emotional responses are testimonials that we are investing in things that are transient. For all the hue and cry about exercising your vote in the elections to change political leadership, can you say with any certainty that the election of a new leader will ameliorate these things? You and I don’t know that! In any case whatever we get out of our emotional responses is essentially transient.

• 1 Corinthians 7:31 (AMPC)—And those who deal with this world [overusing the enjoyments of this life] as though they were not absorbed by it and as if they had no dealings with it. For the outward form of this world (the present world order) is passing away;
• 1 John 2:17 (AMPC)—And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever viz
• Revelation 21:1, 2 (NLT)—Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Please let this sink in your spirits that whatever time and sense (emotions) can give is not worth the price it exacts!

If anything, our response should be how long, O Lord? I will use Isaiah 6:9-11a (NLT) to illustrate—And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’  Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing. Then I said, “Lord, how long will this go on?” 

The Greek version reads—And he said, “Go and say to this people, / ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. /  when you see what I do, you will not comprehend.’ / For the hearts of these people are hardened, / and their ears cannot hear, and  they have closed their eyes— / so their eyes cannot see, / and their ears cannot hear, / and their hearts cannot understand, / and they cannot  turn to me and let me heal them.” Compare Matt 13:14-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; Acts 28:26-27. 

When Isaiah understood the implication of what was going to happen to him and his people, what God had determined, his only cry was how long; and the lessons for us to learn lie in the answer that God gave him. The answer was double-edged:

• For Isaiah, it was a call to be persistent in conveying the message committed to him and to be undaunted by whatever the reactions of the people were to the message (God has committed to us a ministry as described in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, not just by word but by deeds), and
• That the situation will prevail for the time determined by God, ending in judgment.

Thus for the elect messenger, the reaction as our text, James 1:5-8, shows is double-edged prayer for:

1. Patience and endurance in the face of all the vicissitudes and negative confession of people because of their blindness and hardness of heart to what is going on; and
2. Wisdom—Proverbs 3:21 (TPT)—ask for wisdom to know how to walk no matter how long the seemingly adverse situation lasts, an action that demands faith; that God will answer us, teaching us how to escape the effects of the circumstances

There is no place for double mindedness (as happened in the church of Laodicea). You stay with God’s principles or with the world’s principles. This is the time of awakening. Isaiah 60:1; Malachi 4:2; Romans 13:11 and Ephesians 5:14, all speak to the different dimensions of awakening to renewal in these times. This is no time to invest your emotions in vain conversation, just as Isaiah warned the people of Judah in Isaiah 8:12-14 (AMPC)—Do not call conspiracy [or hard, or holy] all that this people will call conspiracy [or hard, or holy]; neither be in fear of what they fear, nor [make others afraid and] in dread. The Lord of hosts–regard Him as holy and honor His holy name [by regarding Him as your only hope of safety], and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread [lest you offend Him by your fear of man and distrust of Him]. And He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred and indestructible asylum to those who reverently fear and trust in Him]; but He shall be a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Dearly beloved, this is our wake-up call for the hour. Heed His word and seek of Him wisdom to walk in these times and He will guide you. Shalom.