You speak and all creation hears the One who holds the years there is no one like You, the Holy One.
My dear son, it is good for you to recognise the fact that I am the Creator of all you see and everything that is unseen around you. It is impossible for you to really conceive of all the vastness of My incredible power, of My huge love which never changes. Yet I draw you and all those who read this blog constantly closer and closer to Me so that you might benefit from My grace and life. I do this for your sake but I also do this for My own sake because I created a universe to glorify Me. Every item every person every living being, everything that I have created I have created to sing praise to Me. One day you will experience that when you are in the presence of My glory. In the meantime make use of every minute of every day to enjoy My creation, to serve Me, to be filled with wonder at the incredible privilege you have to experience My grace and love.
Flowing from and woven into the word on trials the paragraph 1:9-11 of James is an amplification or example of the trials mentioned earlier. One of the main themes in James is the interaction between various people especially people groups with each other. As we saw in Romans this was a large problem everywhere, although the exact nature of disunity varied with different societies.
The idea introduced here is twofold. It has to do with pride and humility and wealth, although they are bound together. The problem there, as it is often with us today, was that those who had wealth felt it made them more important than the poor. The upside down enigma of the Christian faith is that it is actually the poor who show humility who can be “proud” of their high position. In the same way the wealthy need to realise that the wealth that they experience as status symbols will fade away and become worthless at some time in the future.
Now how does this relate to “trials of many kinds”? Not hard to see poverty as being a trial which can be very severe, but one commentator suggested that the trial of wealth is actually of greater danger than that of poverty. Not only can it cause the wealthy to look down on the poor, but the presence of wealth makes the person feel he has everything under control and does not need God. This is actually a dangerous position, because the poor recognise their total dependence on God for all things, the wealthy don’t really feel the need for a relational dependence on God. I see this very widespread here in the affluent society I live in.
In addition this thought follows the statement on double mindedness in v 8. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount showed how wealth can cause us to be double-minded. Depending as much on one’s wealth as on God. Matt 6:24 You cannot serve two masters…. You cannot serve both God and mammon.
So friends let us renew our quest in Jesus’ words in the SOM Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. For purity and single-minded faith in our dear Father and His loving Son Jesus. These concepts are perhaps far easier to understand than apply in our lives. Praise the Lord that He has given us His Spirit to help us work towards maturity and His commitment to even use trials of many kinds to that end.
Bless you all till next week.