James 1:1-27

James is a wonderfully practical book that just cuts straight to the heart of so many issues.  His teaching is simple to understand but very difficult to practice since it goes against our natural “bent” towards sin.  We do not just naturally rejoice in suffering or poverty, but that is exactly what James tells us that God wants us to do.  These are the basic truths that God wants us to learn and obey in our relationship with Him.
PLEAD FOR GOD’S WISDOM: There is no doubt that in order for us to be able to obey the teachings of this book that we will need to have God’s wisdom.  We need to be able to see the events and circumstances of our lives from God’s perspective and not our own; that is what wisdom is all about.  We are not naturally wise, but God has graciously provided access to His wisdom through prayer that is offered in faith.  We must believe that God wants us to have His wisdom and we must want His wisdom when we pray.  It does no good to pray for God’s wisdom if, in reality, we just want to continue to live our lives according to our own desires.  God’s wisdom will allow us to live according to the teachings of God’s Word.  It is readily available to us if we truly want it.  All we need to do is ask.
PERSEVERE IN GOD’S WORK: We can easily become discouraged in the work of God because of the trials and testings or problems and persecutions associated with doing the work of God.  However, if we have asked for God’s wisdom in faith, we will persevere in these difficult days.  In fact, James tells us that we will even be able to rejoice in the midst of trials because we will be able to know that is at work in our lives we will be glad for the spiritual progress that He is producing through the trials that we face.  Our temptations do not come from God, but He will use them to bring about our good and His glory.  Our temptations come from Satan, the world in which we live and our own fleshly desires.  These temptations are not easy to overcome but it is possible to be victorious over these temptations and persevere in them as we depend on the power and wisdom of the Lord.
PRACTICE GOD’S WORD: We have all been exposed to the Word of God and the teaching of Scripture in wonderful ways.  We have multiple translations of the Bible; we hear sermons in our churches; we can listen to the most gifted speakers of the radio; we have countless books that have been written to help us fully understand the Word.  We even have blogs.  All of this exposure to God’s Word is wonderful, but it is also very dangerous.  We are all responsible for that which we know and thanks to all the things mentioned above, we know very much about the Bible.  However, the true question of the matter is if we are truly practicing that which we know?  It is easy for us to spend time in God’s Word and then walk away with our conscience satisfied that we have had our quiet time with God, but then make no changes in our lives.  The Bible is not meant to fill our heads, it was written to transform our lives.  If we have truly been given God’s wisdom, He will enable us to know how to live according to His Word and not simply know a lot about His Word.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 8, 2011 at 7:24 AM

    wow! I think I always forget how convicting the book of James is...this was a really good post papa - it motivates me to get out there and do something! Which is perfect since I just woke up and needed a little motivation to get out of bed :) PS - I would also like to point out : I'M CAUGHT UP!!!!

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