Dr. Craigen preached a sermon on the book of James a few years ago on James 5:7-8.
“ Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” (James 5:7-8 NAS95S)
He said something quite wonderful when illustrating the call to strengthen our hearts.
“Put iron your heart is the way William’s colloquially translates it. What is this to put steel in your heart? A British soccer coach might say to his team were they to be facing a superior team that has won all the time, “stout hearts chaps, stout hearts! Stand strong and firm.” Heart referring to the whole being, the inner being, the seat of intelligence of the intellect… of the emotions… of all the reasoning coalescing all together producing what you are in your in your thinking internally and what you’re doing so far as you’re allowed to come at it externally. A Biblical world view calls for you to have stability in this life as you look out upon its distressing circumstances and believe, you, me. Both personally and globally we can be disturbed by what’s happening in our world, what’s happening, what’s next, why now, why me? Then the Lord steps in, ‘Stand firm and hold firm to the traditions you’ve been told’ Paul says. Because God is coming on the scene. Put it like this, Put iron in your soul for the coming of the Lord is at hand [and] here it is. Jesus said “Be on the alert, you don’t know the hour of the end. Evening or morning or midnight or afternoon” it’s ‘draw near,’ it is, it’s right here, ready to break in.
I”ll summarize it like this: You put iron in your heart by putting facts of eternity in your head.”
Need I say more?
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