The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – James 1:13-18 (day five)

“But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”

My relationship with God through Jesus Christ is both corporate (I belong to a community of believers- body- family) and personal (God called and saved me). I had a youth worker in Dallas who wanted to illustrate this point. He handed out $5 dollar bills to every teenager who came to our Wednesday night gathering. Students were thrilled and overwhelmed (it was 30 years ago- $5 went a long ways). He began teaching about how God loves and deals with His children. He said, “In a way, I gave all of you $5. But in a more personal and intentional way, I gave each of you $5”.
pThere is certainly community and fellowship with other believers. Accountability. Encouragement. Ministry together. But there are deeply personal and individual facets of our faith as well. My salvation. My sin. My growth. My relationship with Christ.

God holds nations and churches accountable.  But He also holds EACH person accountable. Judgement is a deeply personal and individual experience. Only I will be asked to give an account for my life. Only I must answer to the Holy and Sovereign Lord for my actions and attitudes. Only I must repent and seek forgiveness for my sins. Only I can call on the Lord for my salvation.

God, give grace to each of us to consider our own sin, salvation, and sanctification.

Re:Verse passage – James 1:13-18 (day four)

I often remind people that every good thing comes from the Lord. “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” This is a comfort to us who have evil desires coming from within our own deceitful hearts. The world says people are good at heart, but they are wrong. The only good in this world is a gift from God. If anything good happens it’s only because God willed it into existence. Not because someone human made it happen. The very moment we go and do something good and get glory and praise because of it, that action becomes impure and sinful. God must receive all the credit for the good things we do. But don’t worry he gives you permission to take credit for the bad things. Just like the passage before said to ask for wisdom, why don’t you ask God to help you do something good for His glory today?

Byron Pitts
Community Missions & Evangelism

Re:Verse passage – James 1:13-18 (day three)

“…we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures.”

There is a world coming, and in that world, people will work for each other’s good, they will bear with one another, they will listen to one another, they will in humility regard others as better than themselves, they will tell the truth to one another, they will let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. And the only way that world comes is by beginning right now and growing until the appearance of Jesus Christ. That’s what the “first fruits” language is all about. James declares that when you live the way of life he preaches, that way of life will give lost people a window into a world they’d want to live in. You are the preview, and they’ll want to join you.

Re:Verse passage – James 1:13-18 (day two)

Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. vs. 15

Make no mistake, sin doesn’t just happen. There are so many times when we put ourselves in positions to allow the un-natural progression of sin to take over. It is likely that you know yourself well enough to recognize a pattern. Whether it is a relationship that is unhealthy, a choice that has historically led to pitfalls, or whatever steps that you have watched yourself take in the past…this ends in only one thing…sin. In order to stop this insanity we must recognize our bent to sin, and cut off the choice before it is too late. If you are strong enough to stop the pattern, and you’re not, Jesus is. It’s time to get off the merry-go-round of sin and death, and set your path where only Jesus can lead.

Re:Verse passage – James 1:13-18 (day one)

Join us as Senior Pastor Chris Johnson, Associate Pastor Aaron Hufty, and Associate Pastor Bryan Richardson walk us through James 1:13-18 in our New Fall Re:Verse Series: “JAMES – Authentic Faith.”

Re:Verse passage – James 1:1-12 (day seven)

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. vs 12

As a junior in high school sitting in my Sunday School class at FBC Lubbock, broken leg from a football injury, broken hearted from a recent breakup, I gaze past the teacher to to see a poster on a wall with James 1:12 written across it. In my juvenile frame of mind I come to the conclusion in that moment that this is the pinnacle of trials. This had to be what James was talking about. Broken hearts and broken legs. If I can just persevere through this trial, the Lord will reward me. I will be back on that football field and will have a new girlfriend! So I claimed James 1:12 as MY verse.

I tell this true story for several reasons. One, now that I work with teenagers, I find great humor in my narrow mindset, but even in adults, we can still become preoccupied in the moment of our own struggles to not see the struggles of those around us. Two, we often believe that our reward for enduring trials is going to be provided to us in terms of earthly success, but the “crown of life” is not a king’s crown. Rather, it is peace and assurance knowing that we are children of the King and our reward is beyond this world.

Re:Verse passage – James 1:1-12 (day six)

So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. James 1:4

Pastor Bryan is absolutely right, there is nothing trite or trivial about the sentiment in these verses. The hopefulness in these verses does not only point to what is on the other side of suffering, but also to the goodness of trials themselves. James is not asking us to grin and bear it, but to understand that in God’s economy he does not waste anything; for even in the moments that seek to rob us, God intends to give.

Re:Verse passage – James 1:1-12 (day five)  “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”  YES, AND THANK YOU!!  Just at the right moment in this passage James gives us the hope we need to wrap our hearts and minds around his exhortation to “consider joy”.  I believe the ALL is in reference to the kinds of trials. Both big and small. Don’t be confused to think that ALL means that you should only feel joy when various trials come.  Sadness, sorrow, doubt, discouragement all come our way. So what I need most, is the wisdom to process the pain, suffering, and heartbreak in a manner that will let me look through the lens of potential joy found in the promised presence of God in the midst of trials (Psalm 46) AND the promised strengthening of my faith (James 1:3-4) which helps grow endurance to take each step of faith in my race and journey with Christ. How do you “consider”? You need need wisdom. Godly wisdom. And that is what God is willing to give. Just ask.  ISN’T THAT GREAT NEWS!!

Re:Verse passage – James 1:1-12 (day four)

The book of James is known as a practical application guide rather than a theological treatise.  James has multiple references to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  The author, the brother of Jesus, must have been greatly impacted by the Lord’s sermon.  We get a glimpse of the character of James in the opening verse…  James describes himself as a bond-servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Humility characterized James’ life as he led the church at Jerusalem until his martyrdom in 62AD.

Being a practical treatise, James begins by addressing the trials that face each of us in life.  James says ‘when’, not ‘if’ trials come.  We can all expect to face trials, temptations, troubles, and tests.  According to our faith, we will respond to these trials.  If our faith is real, it will be revealed through the trials. Others will recognize our true faith.  If it is false, your faith will burn up when tested.

How do you respond when trials come?  Do you see the hand of God at work in your life?  Do you know the peace of God when you are tested?  James says, “the proof is in the pudding.”

Re:Verse passage – James 1:1-12 (day three)

“Consider it all joy…”

Somewhere, there’s a list of irritating, irrelevant, and insulting platitudes entitled “Things to Say When You Just Don’t Want to Hear People’s Problems.” James’s statement would certainly make the list. So would Jesus’s “Do not worry about tomorrow.” And how about Paul’s “All things work together for good…?” What makes them irritating, irrelevant, and insulting is not the reality they reveal, but the way they’re often used: as a happy-talk escape hatch to avoid entering into people’s suffering. The Bible’s not trying to get anybody to look on the bright side, though. Instead, it’s declaring that hope and purpose fill the universe instead of determinism and indifference. At the center of the cosmos is a person, not an algorithm. And it’s that person – the Lord – who turns attentively to your cries of pain.