{"id":15490,"date":"2025-03-15T18:46:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T23:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15490"},"modified":"2025-03-17T18:56:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T23:56:25","slug":"james-57-8-establish-your-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15490\/james-57-8-establish-your-hearts\/","title":{"rendered":"James 5:7-8: “Establish your hearts…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

I was going through looking at different scriptures on patience and in James 5:8, it says to establish your hearts.<\/span><\/p>\n

[7] Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. [8] You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is he meaning by “establishing”, and is it possible that is something we can do or is that waiting on God to do for us?<\/span><\/p>\n

Steve<\/span><\/p>\n

=========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Steve.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

To establish your heart means to be\u00a0“no longer children, tossed by waves and blown about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).\u00a0 It requires patience and faith.\u00a0 It is the work of God in a willing heart.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A heart that is strengthened by God is stable,\u00a0and\u00a0it\u00a0proves itself over time.\u00a0 God’s children\u00a0will\u00a0learn that they can count on him\u00a0whose heart is\u00a0established.\u00a0 A strengthened heart does not pursue worldliness, but has its eyes fixed on Jesus and the hope of eternal life.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A heart that is established endures\u00a0all\u00a0things\u00a0with the attitude of a servant.\u00a0\u00a0It reacts to provocations with kindness and to blessings with humility.\u00a0\u00a0It judges all things with the mind of Christ.\u00a0 It is filled with the love of God\u00a0and “never fails”.\u00a0 An established heart loves righteousness and hates iniquity.\u00a0 It rejoices\u00a0in hope and speaks the truth in love.\u00a0\u00a0An established heart\u00a0waits.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A\u00a0heart is established by fire, by going through trials and learning to trust in God, who “resists the proud, but gives grace\u00a0to the humble.”\u00a0 It neither flies too high or plunges into depths of despair; it confidently rides the waves until it reaches the shore,\u00a0knowing that\u00a0with Jesus in the boat, it cannot sink.\u00a0 An established heart does\u00a0not yield to the pressure of a multitude to do evil, but senses what is good and clings to it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You may know within yourself that Jesus has established your heart, but it always takes time for some others\u00a0to be convinced.\u00a0 To convince them is your job, but you cannot do that with words; consistent godly conduct alone will win their\u00a0confidence.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Comments welcome:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/WitnessofSpirit\/status\/1901783702696333433<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John, I was going through looking at different scriptures on patience and in James 5:8, it says to establish your hearts. [7] Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15490"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15493,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15490\/revisions\/15493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}