A Daily Devotional – James, the Epistle – Personal Meditation (2)

A Daily Devotional – James, the Epistle – Personal Meditation

Comment: The trials and temptations of life are numerous so these would be impossible to list. A trail or temptation is anything in life that disrupts a normal day of living life in the Spirit. James is writing to his disbursed nation, Israel. But more specifically he is focused on his believing brothers, those in Christ who are walking by faith. He makes 15 references to them as ‘brothers’ and we will look at these references as they appear. All trials and all temptations are challenges for the child of God to do the one thing that God requires of every child of God. God has shown His children what to do in all trials and temptations of life as Micah 6:8 reveals. The walk of faith is the same for every man, Jew and gentile alike.

Devotional: Using examples that are relevant in synagogues and churches, James reveals that we as children of God fail to walk by faith because we lack understanding and obedience to the Wisdom of God. Rather than the joy of walking by faith many fail because they resist the testing of their personal faith. Therefore, by lacking endurance through the entirety of the testing event they fail to mature. That is, they have no patience and fail the test. Being mature in Christ; or perfect and complete means that ‘spiritually’ we lack nothing to face the trials of abiding in Christ; the result is joy because we have endured.

Failure to endure means one thing in that we lack the wisdom that comes from God to abide in Christ by faith. To me personally, if I fail to abide in Christ, who is the wisdom of God; see 1 Corinthians 1:24-31 and Colossians 2:2-3, then it is by personal choice in that I have not applied what I already hold as True, thus my joy is replaced by failure of walking by faith. Lacking wisdom for me is lacking to seek God’s direction at the time of trial or temptation.

God has given wisdom liberally to all who ask by faith. He does not hold back anything as James records in verse 5. If we lack wisdom it is because we know what to do, but fail God with double-mindedness (to him who knows what to do and does not do it; it is sin, James 4:17) which chokes out patience and endurance to abide in Christ by faith. This does not mean that we are not saved, but it does mean that faith and doubt do not work to please God since the double-minded person is unstable in all of his or her ways.