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James |
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| Chapter 1 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 4 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 2 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 5 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 3 | Prayer | Devotional |
Prayers
Father God, We are Your servants. Help us to remember that You are working out our perfection through the suffering that we face day by day. Grant us wisdom. We are persuaded of Your goodness, and of our need for Your gifts. Our lives come and go. Make us to be steadfast under trial. We look for the crown of life that only You can give. Turn us away from every evil desire. These things only lead to death. Grant us instead a love for You and for every blessing that You send to us. We turn away from sinful anger. We devote ourselves now to doing the Word that we have heard. Help us in our fight against sin, that we might use our tongues for good and our hands to care for those in need.
Lord God, how could we be so worldly? Our desires instinctively rush to the rich, and we treat the poor as creatures of another god. We have dishonored You. You give to so many suffering people the precious gift of faith in Christ. How can we violate Your Law so obviously when You have shown such mercy to us in Christ? Grant that we who have faith in Your Son might move forward in works of true love and righteousness. May our lives show forth the true faith that You have granted to us. May our faith be completed by our works. Father, we want to live as Your friends. Give us courage to do what You are calling us to do, for we know that mere assent to the doctrines of our faith apart from works is dead.
Sovereign God, thank You for the teachers of faith that You have sent to us. We know that they need to be examples to us of Christian living. Help them to guard their tongues carefully, for they face many temptations. Be our strong Deliverer, that we might all use our speech in holiness, as people of blessing. Grant us the fresh and cleansing water of Your Holy Spirit. Cast out of us demonic impulses that only cause fruitless quarrels. Fill us with true wisdom that comes from above. Make us love what is pure, and help us to pursue godliness with hearts that long for true peace.
Great King, restrain our sin and foolishness, and fill us with new and holy passions. Teach us to ask You for what we need, that we might serve You in accordance with Your purposes. We submit to You even now, and we resist the devil. Thank you for the promise that he will flee from us. We pledge to speak kindly of each other. Help us, O Lord. Grant that we would give up on old habits of arrogant thinking and proud boasting. We live according to Your pleasure. You may bring us home at any moment. We are Your children.
Glorious Lord, we will not trust in our prosperity. We will be fair and generous to everyone around us. Father, though we pledge to obey You over and over, we cannot bear the perfect standard of Your Law. We have surely sinned against You in horrifying ways. Will we stop sinning now? Grant us more grace day by day, and move us forward in perfect obedience. Fill us with hearts of delight in You, that we might be patient and worship You. Shower us with Your Spirit and help us to offer up to You earnest and faithful prayers. Grant us mercy for the weak, and help us to save those who wander into pathways of evil.Devotionals
The truth of Christ that we have found so delightful to our souls, when fully embraced, leads to a life of service and love. This law of freedom and love is something new and heavenly within us that must be lived out. The man who rejects this freedom is not merely turning away from suffering, he is turning away from true joy.
James, the author of this letter, was a leader in the church in Jerusalem. See Acts 15. He was also a son of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Christ appeared to him after His resurrection, and though he was not one of the eleven apostles, he was a very influential Christian in the early church. He introduces himself in this letter as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has found a life of joy embracing God in the midst of trial.
When he addresses his epistle “to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion,” he is using Jewish terminology to refer to the whole New Testament church composed of Jews and Gentiles, just as Peter does when he calls the church a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.” James is well aware that the church scattered throughout the world is suffering persecution, yet when he writes to people of faith about their struggles, he does not limit his teaching to those who are hated because of Christ. He speaks to those who face trials of various kinds. James does not say that trials will feel like joy to your flesh. If that were the case, then they would not be trials. He says that followers of Jesus Christ need to count their trials as joy, because they know that God is doing a very good work in their lives through these painful challenges that He has both permitted and ordained for them.
None of this requires that we say that the trials themselves are good, or we find ourselves in the absurd position of calling sin and disease good. They are not. God is good, and He has decreed that bad will be used for the purpose of a greater good. Trials test and prove the faith of believers, and God uses them to produce a deeper steadfastness in our lives that will serve us well in ways that we may not understand at the present.
We cannot understand all that is in the mind of God, but we can ask Him for the wisdom necessary for holy living. He will be pleased to give that good gift to the man who asks in faith. And God will not be looking for faults among His dear children, continually pointing to our errors. We should trust Him, and ask Him for things that He Himself has said are good, and He will give us these good gifts. Why wouldn't He? Yet when we look at the lives of faithful Christians, we may not be able to make sense the specifics of God's providence in their lives. We can still trust God.
There are certain behaviors that will hinder our prayers. If people ask us for help, and we say no without cause, what do we suppose God will do to us when we ask Him for help? But if you are happy to treat a lowly brother with dignity, why should God refuse to give you good things when you ask Him with the sincerity of faith?
You do not need God's help to show deference to rich people who can do you great favors. That comes naturally. But to love and serve the poor, that is both spiritual and wise. We should do it in the Name of Jesus. He will not forget that labor of love. If we embrace the heavenly-minded life, this will make more sense to us. Riches mess up many people. And powerful men can die in a moment just like anyone else. But heaven is forever.
You need to live for the crown of life that only God can give, because that is the only honor that will last beyond your death. Do you love God? Good enough. Think of Him as He is is. He is not trying to trip you up. He is not rooting for your humiliation or your death. These things happen, and God is sovereign, but you cannot understand the complexities of God's works. In the absence of perfect knowledge, it is not a good idea for you to think bad thoughts about God.
Are you stuck in sin, or continually facing temptation? Please do not blame God, just because you know that He is the Ruler over all. Much better to take responsibility for your own sin, come to Him, confess it all, and repent of it all. He is not impressed by your angry insistence that as the Almighty One He should not allow bad things to happen. Better to place your hand over your mouth sooner rather than later. We know about the book of Job, but you have one thing Job did not have. You have the book that bears his name, so you should not have to repeat his error of trying to justify yourself at the cost of accusing God of wrongdoing. Best to think of it this way: “I'm the problem. I am not as righteous as Job. I gave in to temptation. I can't blame God. I sinned. Sin leads to death. Help me, Lord!”
Never impute evil to God. He sent His Son from heaven as the greatest gift from the Father of Lights. He knows all about sin, and He has solved that worst of all problems at great cost to Himself. It would be rude to accuse Him of the problem that is ours and not His. He has made us responsible moral agents. Best to take responsibility when we sin. We have the great blessing now of living by the heavenly gifts that Christ has won for us. We have the Word of truth. We can listen. No need to speak too much. And stay away from too much anger. Have you forgotten what God is like, and what He has done for you? Look for the needy and help them. Follow the way of true freedom, as a doer of the Word, and thank the Lord forever for all of His glorious gifts.
It is so easy to judge people. We look at what they are wearing and we think that we know who they are. What is in the heart of a man? Even if we fully understood, do we really pretend to know why God has sent this particular person to be a part of this specific congregation.
The body of Christ is one. When we start splitting up the worshiping assembly into groups, we can so easily become judges with evil thoughts. The point of reference that divides is self. Self makes distinctions between various members of the Lord's family based on what each person can do for it. Jesus is the reference point that unites. He loves all who are in Christ. We are all valuable in Him. We are loved and are worthy of love.
The way of self is the way of the world. But Jesus is King over all and the Lord of all providence. He has chosen those that the world would never choose as His beloved children. Will we disagree with Jesus about the worth of others based on our own assessments? He has blessed the poor, granting faith in Christ to many who are weak. Yet now they are co-heirs of heaven with Christ, and they shall inherit the earth. Will we dishonor a man whom God has so richly blessed? And then we rush to show deference to the rich, the famous, the powerful, and the popular, though so many of the beautiful people of success have persecuted the church. Would we side with Herod and Herodia as those who would be able to do so much for our good cause? Yet she came up with the idea of putting the head of John the Baptist on a platter, and he agreed to her entrapment to protect his own pride.
It is not a new idea that we should follow the Lord's assessment of people created in His image. God has given us a sure guide for practical relations with those around us: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” To ignore this directive is to break the Law of God. God has also called us to be merciful as He is merciful. We have found liberty in Christ, through His death and resurrection. Will we insist on judgment without mercy in our relationship with others?
To have a heart of mercy and to love, these are requirements of true faith. Someone who insists that they have faith, but who is not merciful and who will not love, can he have real faith? Faith is more than an intellectual assent. It is a full resting of the soul on the mercies and love of God in Christ. It must yield works, or it is not a living faith at all. Only a living faith saves.
Living faith displaces self from the focal point of existence. God in Christ is Savior and Lord, and the people of faith are brothers and sisters to be loved. We look to their happiness, not because we can get something from them, that would be self taking the lead again, but because of Jesus, who loves them. The community that has been saved is a community where faith works through love.
Mercy and love are the works that flow from faith. If the heart is not alive, the blood does not move through all the systems of the body, providing nourishment to every member. But if the heart is alive, then the blood will be moving and serving. How can we insist that our hearts are alive in the truth of Christ if our hands will not serve one another out of reverence for the Lord?
The devil does not have a living faith. He believes, and he has a certain kind of fear of God, but self has never given way to Christ as the reference point of a life of love and mercy. The children of the devil among men are the same way, no matter how much they say that they have faith.
Real faith is alive with the actions of heavenly life. Abraham had that kind of faith, and it was credited to Him as righteousness. What if he had claimed to believe the voice of God, but then turned away from that true voice when the words became too hard for him to obey? In that case self would have still been the reference point of his living. But if God is the true focal point of life, then faith, when tested, will be proven or “justified” by obedience.
Jesus believed the voice of God calling Him to the obedience of love and mercy. This was not external to Him, but fully and perfectly alive within Him. He believed and He followed. Where would we be without the perfect living faith of Jesus Christ? The root of our salvation is in Him. Everything else, however commendable it may be, is only our response to what has been perfectly accomplished for us by our Lord. Where the soul embraces the Savior who embraced our sinful lives on the cross, mercy and love must be lived out, however imperfectly. Living faith finds real people to love. We are friends of God in Jesus Christ through this active faith. Faith makes friends with others in the Name of Jesus. The people of faith hear the voice of God, and they take actions that may cost them. This was the faith Rahab had when she hid the spies in the day when Joshua led the people of God in the conquest of Canaan. If Rahab had said that she believed the voice of God, but then turned over the Israelites to their enemies, could she have had credible claim to true faith in the God of Israel? But Rahab the prostitute was saved by a living faith in the Redeemer of Israel.
The body apart from the spirit is dead. So also faith apart from works is not faith at all. Our Joshua, Jesus Christ, is the singular reference point of our faith. Because of Jesus, self must give way to the mercy and love of Christ. He is Lord.
We are people of mercy and love. We are living out a message, but more than that we are living out something real that is the basis of the message we preach. The Word that we proclaim is the mercy and love of God to us. Christ is the reality that makes that message so powerful. Through Him, and through His good news, mercy has triumphed over judgment. Because of Him we need to be merciful. He is the power of love in us.
This is all unquestionably right, but as soon as we start talking, too often we find something else coming out of our mouths that is not consistent with the grace of our Lord. And we cannot seem to tame our tongues. There are so many occasions where it would be better to say nothing at all rather than to say what we say.
Some are called to be teachers, and they cannot avoid speaking, but teachers will be judged with more strictness. Everyone stumbles in one way or another, but it is very easy for a teacher or preacher of the Word to stumble with his mouth. To be that kind of ambassador for Christ is not for everyone, but to live a quiet and faithful life of love should be the goal of every Christian.
This is not an easy thing to attain, but God can help us. The reason we have such trouble with speaking is that we have an even deeper problem with thinking and desiring. If we want to stop our tongues from starting fires, we need to ask God to send the living water of heaven more and more into our hearts and minds. This is the only way to tame the tongue, and it will only happen by the grace of God, who makes all things new.
We need our speech to be a consistent source of blessing, and not a polluted stream that was clean when it went forth from the mountain of God, but picked up too many impurities on its way to eager self-expression. Imagine what our speech will be like in heaven when every motion of our heart is in tune with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This is our goal today, to have that kind of heavenly heart now, blessing God, and showing forth His love and mercy to people like us who need his grace every moment of every day.
We say that we believe that heaven exists, and it does. It is the place where God dwells most supremely. We contend that life in heaven is without sin, and that the angels and men there are even now in a Paradise of perfect love. This is absolutely right. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Even before the resurrection, while the Lord's body was still in the grave, He went to that Paradise of just men made perfect where people have real self-control. We trust that when Jesus returns, that we will live the perfect life of heaven on a renewed and reunited heaven and earth. This is our hope and it is secure in the work of Christ for us. But do we believe that we can have the wisdom and grace that comes from above today in this world of trouble? This is what God wants for us now. We can ask for and receive this heavenly blessing today.
The wisdom that comes from above is the mind of Christ. To have heavenly wisdom is to have true Christ-likeness and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If you want a quiet life, where your speech would more fully reflect the glory of the ascended Jesus who died for your sins, you must be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In this heart/mind/soul mysterious center of true humanity, you cannot nurture the bitter jealousy and selfish ambition of demonic life, and expect that you will still speak the truth seasonably with the mercy and love of heaven. From an unclean root we can only expect fruit of disorder, sin, guilt, shame, and regret.
But there is another way of life open to us today by the love of God expressed so beautifully to us in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We do not have to wait until the moment of our death to experience more of heaven. We have the mind of Christ now, and we can ask God for more grace so that we will live according to the wisdom that comes from above. That wisdom is first pure. Particularly for those who would speak as representatives of Christ in the teaching ministry of the church, before we think much about how we can keep the peace of Christ in His body, we must consider our need for the purity of Christ in His church. What is the true answer that we are seeking? How will mercy triumph over judgment today? How will righteousness be more fruitfully lived out in this congregation as we put off the habits of an unclean old mind, and put on the life of purity. Don't give up on this too quickly. This is where heavenly living fights the first battle of the good fight. God needs to show us the way of purity. Then we can move on to the beauty of peace. How can that truth of purity that we have come to love be expressed in a way that will best maintain the peace of heaven in the church? This wisdom of gracious speech will have an ear that is gentle, hearing the best, and a mind that is open to reason, looking for the opportunity to see the mercy of God known, loved, and experienced by all.
People who visit a church where heavenly wisdom reigns should be able to sense heart of Christ. It should feel different than the place where the unloving and unspiritual divisions of worldliness lead the flock of God in the wrong direction, despising the poor and weak and exalting the well-connected and beautiful. But we can walk in the wisdom of heaven now. The Lord of glory has led the way for us in His suffering love. He visits us with His Spirit of mercy. He will bring forth a harvest of righteousness, sown in peace by those who love the peace of God, and who seek peace for themselves and others according to the wisdom that comes from above.
The wisdom that comes from above is a gift of God. Without that gift we will not live the heavenly life on earth today. There is another alternative. We can live the normal life of worldliness that fits in so well with this place of sin and misery. This alternative is the way of quarreling and fights among people who should not be treating each other like enemies.
When there are passions at war within a person, that internal hostility can easily be expressed in negativity and hatred toward others. It all comes down to desires. When we set our hearts on lesser desires, and we don't get what we want, we are ready for war. The heavenly-minded life is for someone who has set his affections on Christ and the life above. What he desires is already securely his. That's why he has a peace that passes the understanding of people that insist on the lesser desires first, the desires that come with worldliness.
Not that there is something wrong with food, friends, good work, or recreation. These are gifts of God that should be received with joy. But if you have your heart set on them as your first love, what do you do when they become unattainable?
If you love God best and hope for heaven most, then you already have what you want more than anything, and no one can ever take that away from you. Your participation in what you love is already completely guaranteed. If you want the lesser pleasures too, that's not a problem, you can ask God for them. He can help you, and His choices and timing for you on all these things are the absolute best. That helps you to rest now, and to enjoy what He gives to you when He gives it. Don't live for lesser passions, but make God and the heavenly life your chief delight, and use whatever He gives to you today as an expression of your joy in Him and your commitment to serve in everything.
For healthy and happy Christian living, Jesus insists on being first in your life. He died for you. You can't give Him up for someone you love more. When anything in your world is a better friend to you than Jesus, then you are asking God to take a lower place in your affections, underneath something that He has created. God will not put up with that kind of spiritual adultery. He is faithful to you, and He is asking you to be faithful to Him. Will you be willing to make that commitment? Our God is an appropriately jealous Lord. That's why He demands your highest affections. When we look at the Christian life through the lens of God's requirements, we can easily become discouraged. Take this simple directive that God be our chief desire. Many claim to obey God on this, but have they been tested? Have their dearest idols been taken away from them? Only a man without any sin could accurately claim to love God his whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Seeing our failure again concerning this or any other holy law that we have been given, we are driven back to the Lord's mercy, because we need Him to forgive us and to receive us again through the perfection of Christ, who died for us. Then, as our hearts are pierced through with the fact of our own failures, we find this great help: “He gives more grace.” This is what we need, more grace. He gives grace to the humble, but He resists the proud. We remember the cross again, and we are humbled, which is where we want to be. We are tired and weak, but the One who gives more grace calls out to our souls: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” This is what we need to do, and God will provide the strength.
We fall again, and He keeps on coming back for us. He says to us, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” We cannot find a place to rest in ourselves. We are plainly not good enough, and He is calling us to repent. We had thought that everything was going to be rest right away, but the rest He has for us includes a sweeping rejection of all idols. He says, “Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
Our peace comes to us in worship. The Lord touches us and speaks to us. He insists that He loves us, that we are His, and that He is ours. But then He insists again that we humble ourselves before Him, and that He will exalt us. And He will. He will rid us of entangling affections and heavy obstacles. God knows how to move mountains out of our way. We need to trust Him, and we need to keep moving in the right direction.
If we are thinking and speaking against others, judging the body of Christ in some way that we would not appreciate being judged, we need to see God throw that boulder out of our pathway to heaven. It is blocking the progress that we seek. If we are boasting and bragging to others about what we are, or what we will do, then we need the Lord to blast through that wall of rock that will only stop our forward momentum. We have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Soon our brief mist of a life on this tired planet will come to an end.
If Jesus, who died for us, does not take us to be with Him where He is, then our future will not be bright. We need a friend who is alive with love and divine power. May the Lord's good will for us include the power of Jesus clearing the pathway for us, even being the pathway for us, to heaven. We know the way to go. Let us walk in it when all seems hopeless. Christ will surely walk with us as far as we need to travel with Him this day.
We imagine that lots of rich people are happy. Perhaps they are. It still remains that for some reason it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The love of money is a serious idolatry that brings all kinds of trouble upon a person. Best to repent, and to give yourself away in service and devotion.
Money fools people. We imagine that we can do anything with it, which is not at all the case. So much of what contributes to our true happiness cannot be purchased. The rich need humility, and
you cannot buy that. Riches do create opportunities, but how have those opportunities been used? To him who has been given much, much is required. Like everyone else, the rich need repentance, faith, and salvation, but these are gifts that no amount of money can purchase. With man, it is all impossible, but with God, all things are possible. God can save, and He will give the gifts and graces that accompany His salvation according to His will. If God does not save, how will the rich man answer the Lord in the day of judgment? During his life the needs around him were so great. Where was he when the poor man needed help? This is a frightening thought for anyone who has had ample food and shelter to consider. Have I turned my back on Jesus? Have I lived my life on earth in luxury and self-indulgence? How will I answer God?
What about the eternal condition of the poor man? He cannot save himself any more than the rich man can. We all need grace so badly. But the poor and powerless also need patience. When will the Lord hear their cry for help? When will he deliver the poor man from this land where scarcity takes such a big bite out of his comfort? When will the kingdom come in power?
Take some hope from the farmer. He plants and irrigates, and eventually the earth will yield the fruit that is desired. God will send the early rain and the late rain. The Lord knows. Call upon His Name and wait with confidence. The coming of Jesus is at hand. Our lives are not really that long. If you are in Christ, your day of deliverance will soon come. Either He will take you where He is, or He will come with all of heaven and meet you where you are, but now on a renewed earth where you will no longer be poor.
Set your hearts upon God, believe His promises, and be at peace with everyone as you wait in hope. Give up on all grumbling, both the kind that people can hear and the kind that they cannot. This external and internal complaining will not put food on the table, it will not stop oppressors from assaulting, and it will not bring you closer to heaven.
Think of the Old Testament prophets. They faced suffering with patience. Yes, they cried out to God, and they felt their needs, but they did not give up on the Word of the Lord. This is what is necessary for us. God will surely come soon to rescue us from all distress.
Think of what the righteous Job faced. He lost his property, and all his children. Then he lost hishealth. Finally he lost all the dignity that he had enjoyed among his people. He became the suffering servant of the Lord. Though he was a man who was more righteous than all those around him, they accused him of secret sin on the basis of these horrific providences. But God visited him and redirected him when he needed Him most. And he was vindicated, and even became an agent of blessing to those who had falsely accused him. The Lord is compassionate. He hears the cries of the righteous man in distress. He will be merciful. The end will be better than you can imagine. Don't give up in the middle of the struggle. You have not reached the end yet. The cross is not the end. The resurrection life of glory is the end. Wait for that. There is no gain that comes from panic and despair. As you wait patiently for the Lord, there are five very important positive spiritual habits that you can cultivate that all have to do with togetherness:
1. Be true to your word. You are a part of a community of faith. What you say matters. Remember the steadfastness of Christ to the plan of grace. His “yes” was yes, despite the cost of love.
2. Cry out and sing to God together. You may do more of the former when you are suffering, and more of the latter when you are cheerful, but either way, lift up your voice to the God who heard His Son and who hears His worshiping assembly.
3. Don't face joys and sorrows alone. Call for help from the church, and particularly from the elders. They want to pray for you when you are in trouble. Christ had to suffer alone. You should not have to. Ask for support, and expect that God will do great things through His church.
4. Pray with and for one another. You can even confess your sins and speak God's words offorgiveness to each other. Commit yourself to the right way, and expect God to use you and others in this spiritual service of mutual care.
5. Give up on wandering. Come back home to God and His church. Jesus has received you. Don't ever run away from His church again.
This pattern of living is for those who have rejected Lone Ranger spirituality. We are the body of which the Lord is Head. We have been bought by His blood. Whether we are rich or poor, we are together, and we can support one another as we look for the coming day of glory when we be together with the Lord forever.