A Daily Devotional – James, the Epistle – Personal Meditation
Comment: Personal sin! How often should we
monitor the personal things we do? One thousand four hundred forty? That would
be once a minute throughout the course of the day, this may be a bit over the
top! Yet, if we are not conscious of personal sin in the out-working of our day,
our personal faith will suffer; James 5:19-20 may seem extreme for some of us
to think about, but it is very real for those who help to restore the personal
faith of those who fail to keep a personal account of their heart before God. In
1 Corinthians 9:27, the apostle Paul reveals that it is the personal
responsibility for every child of God to use good judgment and discipline to
protect one’s ‘crown’ of personal faith. “But I discipline my
body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I
myself should become disqualified”.
Devotional: One
more thought before we look at heavenly wisdom that contends with demonic
wisdom in James 3:13-18. Recently I was standing with a group of men who were
discussing the town budget. One of those men is a believer like myself. I was
not in the conversation, but was one of several listeners. The believer was
controlling the conversation, yet his language was far from his personal faith
in Christ. With his brothers in Christ there is ‘one’ conversation, but with
his teammates, he has quite another message.
Does a spring produce fresh clean water? Yes! Because
bitterness does not flow from the sweetness of that opening. Yet, we willingly
with the opening of our mouth pollute our personal faith, the faith of others
and the people who are without faith by filthy language. Then without the blink
of the eye we bless the Father of Glory when mingling with the brothers and
sisters of our local church.
So James asks another question; “Who is wise and
understanding among you?” Conduct, conduct, conduct! Personal faith requires,
personal monitoring and obedience (meekness) to the wisdom of God. When we do
not get our way, it is the envy of another’s advantage over us. Our conduct
over this ought to be one that protects our personal faith, instead most seek
to save face, which is that human bitterness and self-seeking thrive, this
causes confusion and every evil event to occur.
Wisdom from God, which is or should be, resident in
our soul is from above, in other words this wisdom is from God; it is first
pure, secondly peaceful, thirdly gentle, fourthly willing to yield, fifthly
full of mercy and good fruits, lastly it is without partiality and hypocrisy.
This wisdom of righteousness is sown in peace by those who are peacemakers. Are
you a peacemaker? God and you know the answer to that question.
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