Category: James

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God Will!

Impatience is a destroyer of faith.

When we become impatient, we begin to try to work things out on our own – we wonder if God is ever going to come through – what’s taking sooooooooooo long? Those kinds of thoughts come from doubt and bring fear – fear that it is never going to work out right. Doubt and fear will choke out the promises of God’s word – they can outweigh faith, if we let them. We must stand with confidence in God’s word if we expect to see God’s promised fulfilled.

When I pray, I pray in faith, knowing that when I pray God’s word I am praying His will and this gives me confidence to know that He will answer.

” But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:6-8 KJV

“ We can come to God with no doubts. This means that when we ask God for things (and those things agree with what God wants for us), God cares about what we say. 15 He listens to us every time we ask him. So we know that he gives us whatever we ask from him.” I John 5:14-15 ERV

Abram followed God from his home out into the middle of nowhere because God made him a promise. A promise that he would possess great land and be the father of many nations. But Abraham never really took possession of the land he had been promised – he lived the life of a nomad – moving from place to place but all the time he held fast to God’s promise.

What is it that God has promised you? What have you left to follow God? No looking back – keep your eyes on the prize of the high calling of God. Don’t give up – don’t fall back. Move forward – continue to follow in obedience to what God has put in your heart.

“Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him…By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11 By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the One who had promised was faithful. 12 Therefore from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as innumerable as the grains of sand by the seashore.” Hebrews 11:6, 8-12

“Do any of you have a son? If he asked for bread, would you give him a rock? 10 Or if he asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? Of course not! 11 You people are so bad, but you still know how to give good things to your children. So surely your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask him.” Matthew 7:9-11 ERV

Keep going knowing your Father in heaven protects and provides for His children. God can and He will!

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Sunrise – Sunset

I hope you forgive me for being a little later with my blog this morning. Dave and I have been sitting on the patio, visiting and enjoying our morning coffee. You see, it’s a beautiful morning. 66 degrees, unusually cool for this time of year. The dove, quail, cardinals and sparrows have come to feed and are quite entertaining.

Did you have a good day with your friend, God, yesterday? I did. I’m so glad He’s in control and I’m not.

Every night the stars and the moon come out and every morning the sun comes up. To some that may seem like a monotonous repetition but to me that’s hope!

“Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same.” James 1:17 ERV

Hope that God is faithful to bring the end to one day and to bring new life to start the next. Without God’s presence we can be without direction and purpose or worse yet we try to become our own god and that means that we are responsible for making everything happen, making everything work out right and it’s simply not in our power to do so.

However, when we give up living for ourselves and find our life in Christ we can have rest from this vicious cycle of dependence on self. In Christ, we are promised a new and abundant life; life filled with joy, peace, love, forgiveness and grace.

“But we know that no one is made right with God by following the law. It is trusting in Jesus Christ that makes a person right with God. So we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, because we wanted to be made right with God. And we are right with him because we trusted in Christ—not because we followed the law. I can say this because no one can be made right with God by following the law…I died to the law so that I could live for God. I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. 20 So I am not the one living now—it is Christ living in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God. He is the one who loved me and gave himself to save me.” Galatians 2:16-20 ERV

Dave and I were talking about a friend we have who we know would do anything he possibly can for anyone of his friends if they had a need. He’s just that kind of person. If a human can have that kind of character then God definitely can and does.

We should never doubt the kindness and goodness of our heavenly Father. In Christ we have been made right with Him; in Christ we have new life and in Him we have the power to live a life of purpose.

Let the sunrise and the sunset serve as a daily reminder of His faithfulness and His unchanging character.

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Heart Attitude

Boy – that can say a lot. When our kids were younger, we told them that we had 2 rules in the house. Obedience and respect. You can obey without respecting and you can be respectful and not be obedient. We stood for both.

This morning we are going to look at Jonah and his disobedience, disrespect and ultimate obedience without respect.

God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak out against the sin and evil there. Instead Jonah decided to run from God and head in the opposite direction just as quickly as he could. He got on a ship headed for Tarshish to “flee from the presence of the Lord.” Not a good sign.

“ The Lord spoke to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Nineveh is a big city. I have heard about the many evil things the people are doing there. So go there and tell them to stop doing such evil things.” 3 But Jonah tried to run away from the Lord.” Jonah 1:1-3 ERV

Most of you know the story – storm at sea, the sailors throw Jonah overboard, he’s swallowed by a great fish, spends 3 nights in the fish’s belly, Jonah cries out to the Lord and then is spit out on the beach a 3 days walk to Nineveh.

In the belly of the fish, Jonah recognizes that it’s the Lord who has sent the fish to save him from drowning. He agrees to go and proclaim judgment over the people of Nineveh. At Jonah’s declaration of God’s displeasure with the ungodly living in Nineveh the King declares that all the people are to repent and hopefully they will be spared.

At the end of 3 days, the city has repented and God acknowledges their repentance and spares them. Jonah gets mad and tells God, “I knew you would spare them if I came here” and he went to the outskirts of the city and pouted. He was very angry with the Lord for sparing them.

Jonah had cried out to the Lord while in the fish’s belly and was saved but he became angry with the city cried out to God and they were spared. He was obedient to do what God called him to do but he didn’t respect God’s actions when it came to others.

“Jonah was not happy that God saved the city. Jonah became angry. 2 He complained to the Lord and said, “Lord, I knew this would happen! I was in my own country, and you told me to come here. At that time I knew that you would forgive the people of this evil city, so I decided to run away to Tarshish. I knew that you are a kind God. I knew that you show mercy and don’t want to punish people. I knew that you are kind, and if these people stopped sinning, you would change your plans to destroy them.” John 4:1-3 ERV

Are we like that?

We expect God to forgive us for the things we’ve done but we become angry when we don’t see others “getting what they deserve”. Sometimes we find it hard to forgive those who have hurt our feelings or mistreated us in some way.

We need to follow the example of Jesus. He prayed for those who spoke evil against Him, those who plotted His death, even those who drove the spikes through His hands and His feet.

“So get rid of everything evil in your lives—every kind of wrong you do. Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you.” James 1:21 ERV

Our obedience to God’s word shows the world that we respect His authority and honor Him with our hearts and our actions.

Let’s live like Jesus today and not like Jonah.

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Godly Character = Self-Control

Looking at the character that the Holy Spirit is working to develop in our lives requires effort or submission on our part. God doesn’t force us to behave in a godly manner. We have a free will.

“So I beg you, brothers and sisters, because of the great mercy God has shown us, offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him—an offering that is only for God and pleasing to him. Considering what he has done, it is only right that you should worship him in this way. 2 Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.” Romas 12:1-2 ERV

We bring our lives, a living sacrifice, to the Father. Offering our lives to honor Him, thanking Him for His forgiveness, unconditional love, grace and mercy.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of criticizing – or maybe that’s just my weakness. That has been around since the beginning of time. Satan’s first efforts were to criticize the Lord and to cast doubt on His loving nature.

I found myself criticizing critical people yesterday. “Lord, I repent.”

All around us there are things we don’t agree with – actions, political views, eating habits, driving habits, work ethics, education or lack there of – and so we criticize.

“The tongue is like a fire. It is a world of evil among the parts of our body. It spreads its evil through our whole body and starts a fire that influences all of life. It gets this fire from hell.

7 Humans have control over every kind of wild animal, bird, reptile, and fish, and they have controlled all these things. 8 But no one can control the tongue. It is wild and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people who were created in God’s likeness. 10 These praises and curses come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen.” James 3:6-10 ERV

I’m still a work in progress and I desire to follow the Lord’s instructions. Instead of being critical I need to pray and let God change those I’m critical of or perhaps change me.

I want my mouth to be filled with prayer, praise, encouragement and edification. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so Lord I want to fill my heart with nothing but your love.

“Don’t let me do what I know is wrong. Don’t let sin control me. If you help me, I can be pure and free from sin. 14 May my words and thoughts please you. Lord, you are my Rock—the one who rescues me.” Psalm 19:13-14 ERV

I want to show God’s love to all I meet because of the love and correction that He has given me.

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Godly Character

It’s very important to me that we have a true view of the Father’s character.

Growing up when preachers on television and in the movies were characterized for preaching hell, fire and brimstone, and one of the popular songs of the day was “God’s Gonna Get You For That”, a cloud was cast on God’s character.

God’s goodness is something I marvel at, almost on a daily basis. The Apostle Paul wrote:

“God has been kind to you. He has been very patient, waiting for you to change. But you think nothing of his kindness. Maybe you don’t understand that God is kind to you so that you will decide to change your lives.” Romans 2:4 ERV

And James writes this: “ Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same.” James 1:17 ERV

I didn’t realize until just now that James 1:17 is an ALWAYS verse.

Probably everyone reading this has heard at least one teaching on the fruit of the Spirit. These are the character traits that the Holy Spirit develops in our lives once we are born again. I see them as being part of our spiritual DNA. (Divine Nature Attributes)

When we’re born naturally we have inherited traits like blue eyes, dark hair, olive complexion, left-hand dominance. Well, when we receive new life from the heavenly Father we inherit His traits and characteristics.

“But the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person’s life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these kinds of things. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful self. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. 25 We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25 ERV

Our heavenly Father’s life displays all of these. Jesus’ earthly life was an example to us on how to act like the Father. His life was selfless, kind, good and loving.

I heard a wonderful teaching on the goodness of God. Goodness is one of God’s attributes. He is always good! He can’t be anything but good; He is, and everything He does is, motivated by love. His love is never tainted with selfishness or envy so everything He does is good.

Don’t attribute the bad things that happen in your life to God. When you do you are misguided in your thinking. The enemy, the one responsible for the destruction in this world, takes pride in getting you to mistrust God and to lose your confidence in His goodness.

Remember these words from the Apostle Paul: “Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected. 9 And do what you learned and received from me—what I told you and what you saw me do. And the God who gives peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9 ERV

Let’s keep our thinking on the Father and His character and we will see true and lasting fruit grow in our lives.

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How Common is Common Sense

Wisdom – a commodity to be treasured. Some call it common sense but it’s far from common. Good judgement, practical thinking – whatever the term, it’s not as common as it used to be.

People seek for knowledge but don’t know what to do with it – not sure how to apply it. The application of that knowledge is wisdom.

I was reading this morning about Solomon.

“God made Solomon very wise. Solomon could understand more than you can imagine. 30 He was wiser than anyone in the Eastor in Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone on earth, even Ethan the Ezrahite and the sons of Mahol—Heman, Calcol, and Darda. King Solomon became famous in all the surrounding countries. 32 By the end of his life, he had written 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs.

33 Solomon also knew very much about nature. He taught about many different kinds of plants—everything from the great cedar trees of Lebanon to the little vines that grow out of the walls. He also taught about animals, birds, and snakes. 34 People from every nation came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom. Kings all over the world sent their people to listen to him.” I Kings 4:30-34 ERV

When the Lord asked Solomon what he wanted Solomon didn’t ask for money or strength or power, he asked for wisdom so that he could rule well. God blessed him in that way and added the other blessings also.

What is it that you find yourself asking the Lord for?

Do you ask Him for wisdom – direction to finish a project, the ability to lead well, understanding of the unknown? The Lord desires to aide us in our day-to-day life and He will give us the wisdom we ask for – it comes from Him.

“Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom. 6 But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt him. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is blown up and down by the wind. ” James 1:5-6 ERV

I found it “coincidental” that as I was reading about Solormon’s great wisdom that I also started reading Proverbs again. Look at the first few verses there.

” These are the proverbs of Solomon, the son of David and king of Israel. 2 They will help you learn to be wise, to accept correction, and to understand wise sayings. 3 They will teach you to develop your mind in the right way. You will learn to do what is right and to be honest and fair. 4 These proverbs will make even those without education smart. They will teach young people what they need to know and how to use what they have learned. 5 Even the wise could become wiser by listening to these proverbs. They will gain understanding and learn to solve difficult problems. 6 These sayings will help you understand proverbs, stories with hidden meanings, words of the wise, and other difficult sayings.

7 Knowledge begins with fear and respect for the Lord, but stubborn fools hate wisdom and refuse to learn.” Proverbs 1:1-7 ERV

Let me encourage you to spend time each day reading in Proverbs. Learn from the wisdom that God gave Solomon. It is definitely a game changer. Let’s regain our use of common sense!

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Hang In There

I hope you took time to go to Judges, chapters 6 through 8 and read about Gideon’s conversation with the Lord. It’s a great story of God’s patience and provision.

“Then the Lord himself said, “Gideon, you will be strong, because I am giving you the power to rescue Israel from the Midianites.”

15 Gideon replied, “But how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest one in Manasseh, and everyone else in my family is more important than I am.”

16 “Gideon,” the Lord answered, “you can rescue Israel because I am going to help you! Defeating the Midianites will be as easy as beating up one man.” Judges 6:14-16 CEV

This morning it’s not about writing a thought that will inspire or encourage; it’s about DOING what we have already been taught. We should never stop learning, never stop receiving good teaching but it’s imperative that we LIVE what we hear.

“17 Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same. 18 God decided to give us life through the true message he sent to us. He wanted us to be the most important of all that he created.

19 My dear brothers and sisters, always be more willing to listen than to speak. Keep control of your anger. 20 Anger does not help you live the way God wants. 21 So get rid of everything evil in your lives—every kind of wrong you do. Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you.

22 Do what God’s teaching says; don’t just listen and do nothing. When you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves. 23 Hearing God’s teaching and doing nothing is like looking at your face in the mirror 24 and doing nothing about what you saw. You go away and immediately forget how bad you looked. 25 But when you look into God’s perfect law that sets people free, pay attention to it. If you do what it says, you will have God’s blessing. Never just listen to his teaching and forget what you heard.” James 1:17-25 ERV

The Lord who spoke to Gideon is the same Lord who speaks to us. He hasn’t and doesn’t change. He took Gideon, the least important man in his community, and used him to bring deliverance to his nation.

When the Lord speaks into our lives He backs His word with His presence. He doesn’t participate in idle conversation. His word has power, and He invests that power in us. Even when we are timid like Gideon, we have God’s promise.

Hang in there and watch the Father bring His word to pass.

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Confidence

“We are certain God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases him. 15 And if we know God listens when we pray, we are sure our prayers have already been answered.” I John 5:14-15 CEV

Today is May 31st. The fifth month of the year is over; only seven more months and the year of 2025 will come to an end.

I told the Lord this morning that my mission, my goal, my quest, my desire, my ambition is to honor Him and bring Him glory with my words, my actions, my thoughts and my prayers. And then I began to pray – pray confidently.

Go back and read the verse I opened with, please. There is certainty and confidence in the words of John, the beloved apostle of Jesus. When we ask for what pleases God he listens to us and He answers our prayers.

Now some would say that we can’t possibly know what pleases God so we can never be completely certain that He will answer our prayers. However, Scripture tells us in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians…

“ We who have the Spirit are able to make judgments about all these things. But anyone without the Spirit is not able to make proper judgments about us. 16 As the Scriptures say, ‘Who can know what is on the Lord’s mind? Who is able to give him advice?’ But we have been given Christ’s way of thinking.” I Corinthians 2:15-16 ERV

And Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit came He would lead us into all truth.

“But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into all truth. He will not speak his own words. He will speak only what he hears and will tell you what will happen in the future.” John 16:13 ERV

God has given us His word so that we know what pleases Him. He wants us to know His will so He had it recorded for all to read. Confidence in prayer comes from knowing God’s word. He will not lie or break His promises.

“The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning.” II Peter 3:9 ERV

“Don’t worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?” 32 Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows you need all of these. 33 But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.” Matthew 6:30-33 CEV

“With all your heart you must trust the Lord and not your own judgment. 6 Always let him lead you, and he will clear the road for you to follow.” Proverbs 3:5-6 CEV

“If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won’t correct you for asking.” James 1:5 CEV

If this blog has touched a chord with you, circle this day on the calendar and say, “Father, I will pray with confidence, knowing Your word is Your will. I will trust You to lead and provide. I will trust the Holy Spirit to guide me in all truth. Thank you. In Jesus name.”

Confidence in the Lord is never misplaced!

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Be Wise

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me!

Do you remember that little saying from when you were a child? I remember saying it several times but you know it’s simply not true. The ugly words that people say stay with you for a very long time. Much longer than a few bruised knuckles and a black eye.

I once woke from a dream where I was quite angry with the person and instead of unloading on them with my mouth, I held my tongue and was able to walk away without saying anything hurtful. I was able to hold my tongue.

Maybe there will be a situation in my life today that I will need to walk that out. Maybe not until tomorrow but surely the experience of my dream will be relived in real life and I pray that I handle it as well.

As Christians we are called to be salt and light to this world. We need to speak out for godliness, we even need to correct misdirected situations but not at the cost of belittling or humiliating the people we are speaking too.

Remember “speak the truth in love”. So if you face difficult people and difficult situations remember this admonition from James.

“My dear friends, you should be quick to listen and slow to speak or to get angry. 20 If you are angry, you cannot do any of the good things that God wants done.” James 1:19-20 CEV

“My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn’t right…Are any of you wise or sensible? Then show it by living right and by being humble and wise in everything you do. 14 But if your heart is full of bitter jealousy and selfishness, don’t brag or lie to cover up the truth. 15 That kind of wisdom doesn’t come from above. It is earthly and selfish and comes from the devil himself. 16 Whenever people are jealous or selfish, they cause trouble and do all sorts of cruel things. 17 But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere. 18 When peacemakers plant seeds of peace, they will harvest justice.” James 3:9-10, 13-18 CEV

Good words to live by. Have a wonderful day of peace!

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God Is Greater

Yesterday I told you the story about our grandson and the fear he experienced in the swimming pool. He is now a good swimmer, advancing quickly in his abilities at swim lessons and his confidence has grown by leaps and bounds.

This is the kind of confidence that comes from knowledge and experience. That’s also how faith in Christ comes, through knowledge and experience.

Have you ever wondered why the Apostle James says we are “to count it all joy when we fall into different kinds of trials”? Joyful in a trial? Are you kidding me?

“My Christian brothers, you should be happy when you have all kinds of tests. 3 You know these prove your faith. It helps you not to give up. 4 Learn well how to wait so you will be strong and complete and in need of nothing.

5 If you do not have wisdom, ask God for it. He is always ready to give it to you and will never say you are wrong for asking.” James 1:2-5 NLV

What if David had never faced Goliath, Daniel hadn’t experienced the lions’ den, Peter only sailed on smooth seas and Paul never faced any jail time?

Without their testimonies of the Father’s faithfulness, power, deliverance and grace we would be void of examples of His promises to save and protect. Each of these men faced hardship and each of them trusted God through those trials. They grew in wisdom and faith.

When trials come, and they will, we can face them joyfully knowing that our heavenly Father promises to bring us through. We will be stronger in faith, trusting Him.

God is greater than the trial, greater than the storm and He has promised to never leave us or abandon us.

“My dear children, you belong to God, so you have already defeated these false prophets. That’s because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” I John 4:4 ERV

“I know the Lord is great! Our Lord is greater than all the gods!” Psalm 135:5 ERV

Come to the Father in times of trial. Find courage, find hope, find joy. God is greater!

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