Oh how I love Jesus, because he first loved me. These words are ringing through my mind and through my heart this morning as I pour my love out to my dear Saviour.
“My desire is that everyone of the folk that are reading this blog will not only know about my love but will understand more and more about it and not only know about it but experience it in every part of their lives. The height the depth the breath and the length of my love are so vast that while you live on earth you will find it impossible to imagine its full extent, but I seek to help you every day to know and experience My love in a new dynamic and in a new dimension so that it will cause you to grow more and more like Me. It is not for nothing that John in his first letter said God is love. I wrapped myself in human flesh and that flesh represented my life and although it was just one Human at the time it is extended into every direction in many ways, so may you and your readers may enjoy and experience my love in a growing and fresh way this coming week.”
Having opened his letter with quite a shocking command “Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds.(James 1:2) and explained how we should get a proper perspective on the trials we all face from time to time. Explaining that God is busy perfecting us and guiding us into a singleminded, enduring faith. The question may surely arise, if God is using this means is He not unkind or evil in some way or other? So James goes straight on to address this idea. Please read James 1:12-18.
Firstly James reminds us of God’s ultimate goal; that after we have persevered in our single-minded faith, we will receive the “crown of life”.(James 1:12) Similar to Paul’s statement in Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us We need to stop and consider how wonderful this glory or crown of life is going to be so that when we suffer we realise that this is only a passing phase, and see it in the context of the real thing which is going to come to us when we cross the Jordan one day and enter the promised land. This is the ultimate perspective that will be most helpful when we are really suffering.
In vv 13-15 he deals with the possible accusation that God deliberately tempts us (with the intention of causing us to sin). This complicated paragraph simply means that although God is involved in these trials, we are always personally responsible for our proneness to sin. James sets out the downward spiral that leads us from seeing something, desiring it, being lured away into actually sinning and then a warning that the ultimate end of sin is death. We are reminded here how prone we all are to blame someone else and not take responsibility ourselves. Like Adam and Eve did in the Garden where they actual blamed God for their predicament.
The important point of this section comes in v 17 where James reminds the reader of God’s ultimate goodness. We will only really cope with suffering when we understand that He is a God that only gives good and perfect gifts. In fact everything good we have and receive come from Him. So in the words of Paul in Romans 8:31 What can we say then in response to this? If God is for us who can be against us. And the greatest gift that anyone can ever receive “He chose to give us birth through the Word Of Truth (Jesus).
So, yes, God is involved and working through the trials and suffering we experience with the huge purpose of perfecting us and making us ready to spend eternity with Him and His intentions are always good, for our best benefit and He never changes, He can always be relied on.
Bless you all till next week.