Glad to Serve
This letter from James is a feast of practical wisdom. As we follow his God-given advice, it will help us to transform our life at work each day.
This letter from James is a feast of practical wisdom. As we follow his God-given advice, it will help us to transform our life at work each day.
James is very blunt as he writes to Christians who are in trouble, just because they love Jesus. He says that trials/temptations (the same Greek word) will come to us. We don't know when the problems will come, how long they will last, how many or what they will be like; but we can be certain that every Christian's faith will be tested. Although we may not like it, we must face up to the reality, that was also true for Jesus; at some point, the world will hate us like it hated Him (John 15:18-21).
Perseverance may sound dull, but without it nothing gets finished.
In our information-rich age, wisdom is in short supply. Information gives us knowledge, but wisdom gives us the ability to choose the right information, and when and how to use it.
When a country, or indeed the world, is rocked by financial instability, the cause is always the same. People have stopped trusting each other.
Most cultures assume that richer people are wiser, and therefore better; but that was not what Jesus taught.
We love to take the credit when things go well; but we hate to take the blame. Transferring blame onto others is common in every culture. Alas, people often accuse God when they fall into sin.
Every temptation is a confidence trick. Satan shows us opportunities to satisfy our ungodly desires, and tricks us into feeling that it must be ok, or even (wrongly) something Jesus would do. Because we want it so much, we brush aside our conscience, refuse to check it out in God's Word, ignore the idea of praying about it; and then we buy the lie. This is as sensible as investing in a bankrupt company. But that was what Adam and Eve did in Genesis 3:1-7.
We tend to think that temptation is an inner urge to do the wrong thing. That is a part of the tempter's work, but not all of it. The impulse to lash out in anger is an issue for many Christians.