Happy Early Saturday morning! I was gonna sleep in but my body said it was awake and I have a busy day so I thought I might as well get to it. My guys are leaving today with the RV and the dog and heading on a road trip to Texas to see my Father-in-law. I am very excited for them but always a little nervous about my baby boy pulling that big trailer and all the crazy drivers on the road. Robert is a great driver but I have watched people be stupid on the road so many times, it's the other guy I worry about. I have been praying for God's protection and I am sure they will have a good trip and a great time.
Today we are looking at James 4: 4-9.
Let's jump on in.
James 4:4 Highlight= friendship with the world means enmity against God. Explain= I think this verse is easy to explain. In a nutshell, can people tell you are a Christian? Do you show the fruits of the Spirit? I have never been a believer in isolating ourselves from the world, I always felt that was the easy way out. If you surround yourselves with only like-minded Believers, who do you witness to? But, I feel we need to be IN the world, without being OF the world. So, what's the difference? People should be able to tell you are not from this world. They should hear it in your speech, see it in your actions and just know there is something different about you. I have said before, I absolutely love that I am finally spending enough time with Jesus that He just comes out. I catch myself talking about "at our church" or "when I was doing my devotional" or "when I was having prayer" and it is becoming natural because it is just me. And, maybe this is not only the fact that I am spending more time in His Word, but also may be age but it seems easier now than ever to speak what I feel. I have had several times though that AFTER I have said it, I am wondering if there will be repercussions, and so far, there never has been. Apply= A few weeks ago, I was in a training and we were talking about meditating and the trainer asked if we meditated. I volunteered immediately and said my meditation is in the form of prayer, and just concentrating on being still and knowing that God is God. I do that a lot on my way to the gym of a morning, I do my devotional and then pray, then I just listen and I am still and letting God get into my head and my day. I had another instance a few months back that I was the trainer and this was not in the script at all but I was talking about interagency meetings, I was talking to a group on a Zoom call from all over the state. And all of the sudden, I hear myself say, "Does anyone know who Matthew West is? He is a Contemporary Christian Artist and he has a song called 'Do Something', and one part of it says, 'I shook my fist at Heaven and said, God, why don't you do something? and God said, I did, I created you'. I was being graded on this training for a certification and I thought I saw my mentor's face go a little bad over that, but she never said a word to me and I passed the credential. And then I thought to myself, if I am working someplace that is going to scold me for brining up God, I might be in the wrong place. Gladly, I am not. Respond = Dear Heavenly Father, please always help me to be different and be in the world, not going along with it. Let people see You in me, and want what I have in You.
James 4:5-6 Highlight= He jealously longs for the spirit He has caused to dwell in us. Explain= God wants a relationship with you, 24/7. The easiest way I know how to explain this is if you have kids, don't you want them to turn to you for knowledge and wisdom? Don't you want them to come to you when they are seeking advice? God is truly our perfect Father, He wants us to ask His opinion on everything in our lives. He is never too busy, or too into something else, He is there for YOU. Apply= I think about an old country song, I want to say it was John Anderson, talking about as his kids were growing up, he missed so many of their events, and then when he got old, they missed so many of his. God never misses our events, He is there for the good, the bad, and the ugly, but He is truly right there. a radio station I listen to often says, "If God is feeling far away, it wasn't Him who moved." God WANTS you to depend on Him for everything, from losing your car keys to losing a job, to losing a friend, He is there, always, and wants you to lean on Him. That's what it means by being jealous for us. He watches us walk on without Him and wants to be a part of our lives, but He also gave us free will, so He can watch us turn our backs on Him too. Respond = Lord, please help me always to turn to you first instead of last in times of trouble. Help me remember You have time for me. When the world is showing its true colors and is making me feel like an outcast, help me remember that is just because this world is not my home, I am home with You and can find peace and comfort when I turn to You, and that is You giving us more grace.
James 7-9 Highlight= Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. Explain= these verses can be taken out of context very easily. the part that says grieve, mourn and wail, change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. This absolutely does not mean we should walk around with the weight of the world on our shoulders and not be happy. This is talking specifically about how we should respond to sin in our lives, or being friends with the world. These verses are telling us we need to take the things in this world that we are letting creep into our lives very seriously and it should pain us when we sin. We should not just laugh it off and go on, we should be genuinely humbled when we have slip ups and do something that makes the world not see we belong to God. If you can laugh and say, "I sure showed them", because you cut someone off in traffic or treated someone badly to get your way, God is showing us, that is "being of this world". Apply= When we humble ourselves, God responds by making our light shine brighter. I spend a lot of time driving, so I guess one of my pet peeves is people being "mean" drivers. Andrew and I went to the Covered Bridge festival Monday. We had walked all day and we were in the parking lot but still had a ways to walk and Andrew really got tired out and said he just couldn't go any farther. I told him I would go get the car, but I basically left him along the side of the road, so I was in a hurry. I was pulling out of the row of cars into the main row, still in the parking lot, where we all should be going no more than 10 miles an hour and I hear a horn blare behind me. I had pulled out in front of this jeep because I was worried about Andrew standing along the side of the road. The jeep had no top on, so when I pulled over to pick Andrew up, I rolled down the window and yelled out, "I am so sorry!" They could see I was pulled over to help someone in distress and I was still told to "F off". I still know I did something stupid and tried to apologize, that is all I can do. I could have yelled, "Be a little patient, can't you see we have a problem?" but the thing was, I was wrong, and so the only right thing to do was to say I was sorry. That is the humbling thing. Respond= Truly, Lord, help me not do stupid things, even though I know I am human and they will happen. So, when they do, help me react in accordance with the fact that I was wrong, I sinned and I need to repent of those sins.
There are so many times I get done with my Bible Study and think, there is so much more I could say, but I want these to be a short read to get you thinking and get you in the Word. Of course, you getting in the Word means I am getting in the Word and learning just as much as you, but please always take the opportunity to delve deeper into each verse and what God is saying to you. If you meditate on a verse, God has the power to really point out, very personally, what He wants YOU to take away from it, I am just guiding the boat, I will let you figure out where you want to end up with it.
Hope you all have a beautiful weekend!
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