Walking through James

Trusting God to answer...

Last time we met, we looked at considering it pure joy when we go through trials of many kinds. Not if but when we go through trials of many kinds.

Why?

James 1:3–4 NIV

because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

God doesn’t allow trials and testing to come our way to destroy us.

John 10:10 NIV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

It’s the thief, it’s the devil that wants to bring destruction in our lives. Jesus came to give us life and that to the full.

Now, what are we supposed to do, when we are going through a trial or a test and we are at our wit’s end.

James 1:5 NIV

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

If you lack wisdom, ask God...

To lack means that we don’t have. It’s not in our possession. We’ve been promised that as we persevere or actively endure with patience, that we will become mature and complete, not lacking anything.

But if we are in a quandary of what to do, we can ask God, and He will give us wisdom.

When Jesus, God the Son, the second person in the Trinity, came to earth, He was in constant communication with the Father. He came to do the Father’s will.

The Greek word for wisdom is sophia. This is what it means,

An Exegetical Summary of James (1:5)

‘knowledge of God’s way and will’ [NIC].

It’s not just information, it is having the ability to know God’s ways and His will, so that we can do the will of God.

Romans 12:1–2 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We can ask God who gives generously...

Here’s some of the words for generously in some other translations.

An Exegetical Summary of James (1:5)

‘liberally’ [KJV], ‘freely’ [HNTC], ‘as a simple gift’ [NIC], ‘without hesitation’ [Herm, WBC], ‘without reserve’ [BAGD], ‘without reservation’ [Lns].

God doesn’t pick favorites to give wisdom to. He doesn’t give grudgingly. He wants wants to give you wisdom, but each of us need to ask God.

God isn’t too busy to help us in our time of need. He’s not impatient.

I sometimes catch myself that when I’m busy doing something and the kids ask me to help. The first thought is “Really!”. , I don’t help them out of compulsion, No I do it because I’m their Dad and I love them.

God gives generously because He loves us. He doesn’t say, “Here we go again.” He’s not impatient with us. It’s not a bother to Him; it brings Him great joy that we would come and ask.

We have not because we ask not.

Here’s the catch:

James 1:6–8 NIV

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

When we ask, we must believe and not doubt

Matthew 7:7–8 NIV

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

The NLT puts it this way about how we ask...

James 1:6 NLT

But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.

It’s like saying, I believe God but...

When we put but in a sentence, basically it negates or erases everything that we said before the but.

God will let us go through our trials alone if we don’t trust Him. It will be a lot harder for us on our own.

An example of undivided loyalty was when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood up to King Nebuchadnezzar. This is what they said.

Daniel 3:16–18 NIV

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Faith is confidence in God’s ability regardless of if He answers the way we want Him to or not.

Divided loyalties or being double-minded

James said that if we doubt which means that we believe God, but...

Maybe not, we are like a wave of the sea. Waves of the sea have no anchor. They are tossed back and forth, up and down. They have nothing to hold on to.

They are unsettled.

If we aren’t sure whether on not to believe God, our minds are unsettled, indecisive, not sure whether or not to do it our way or God’s way.

If we are like this, we shouldn’t expect anything from the Lord. God wants to be our first choice, not our last resort if all else fails.

Let’s go to him first.

How do we overcome doubt?

Romans 10:17 NKJV

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The more we hear God’s word the greater our faith becomes.

What about a close friend of Jesus’ who we love to call doubting Thomas, maybe we should change his name to believing Thomas.

What makes Thomas any different than you and I. If one of your closest friends died, and people started telling you that he or she was now alive, would you believe or would you think that some of your friends had gone crazy?

Doubting - Mark Stephenson

“Devotional writer Selwyn Hughes wrote "Those who doubt most, and yet strive to overcome their doubts, turn out to be some of Christ's strongest disciples." Thomas was transformed, saying, "My lord and my God!" That does not hit us as powerfully as it would hit the original disciples. Before that day, they called Jesus rabbi, meaning teacher. They called him Christ, meaning the anointed one. The called him the son of the living God. No one, before Thomas, had called Jesus, "God." Jewish leaders would not have hesitated to pass the death sentence on Thomas for blasphemy. It was an incredible and dangerous thing to say.

The Bible says that the one who had been most honest about his doubts was the first to call Jesus, "God." There are traditions that say he was the disciple who traveled furthest to tell others about Christ. Tradition teaches that he proclaimed the gospel in Babylon, Persia, and all the way to India. There are Christian churches in southern India claiming to trace their heritage to Thomas.” (Mark Stephenson SC)

If you struggle with doubt or have struggled with doubt in the past, God wants you to know that He is greater than your doubts. You can be an overcomer because

1 John 5:4–5 NIV

for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

I want to close with a story of a family that seemed to have everything thrown at them and yet God worked through people.

Warren Lamb

I want to share a story from Reader’s Digest, December 2002, which was taken from a story by Lee Hill Kavanaugh, of the Kansas City Star. It goes like this:

Perry Bice turned off the engine but remained behind the wheel. Parked in his driveway was a wheelchair-accessible van, a huge red and gold bow spanning the windshield. Bice began to sob.

"Why is Daddy crying?" asked nine-year-old Branson. Scrambling out, the boy ignored the van; he’d spied the trampoline and the basketball goal near the newly constructed wheelchair ramp. It was still early on Christmas Day, 2001. But already the Bice family had been blessed beyond its wildest dreams, thanks to a group of anonymous volunteers in the Kansas City area – the Elves of Christmas Present.

The Bice family has seen more than its share of sorrow. In just a few short years, Perry’s car engine went out, and a fire destroyed the house he shared with his wife, Kathrine, and their children. And then Perry lost his job.

But even deeper troubles were beginning. When Kathrine’s mother died suddenly, tests revealed a rare condition and helped unlock a family medical mystery. Doctors finally were able to diagnose what was wrong with the Bices’ youngest daughter, Rishonn: She had a related genetic disorder, mitochondrial disease, a condition that can lie dormant for years – or end a life in weeks.

Before long, the Bices learned their oldest daughter, Chambris, also had the disease. And then Mishayla tested positive. Two other children, Branson and Talaessa, were healthy. Kathrine, it turned out, was the carrier. For months, the couple lived in a daze of grief, denial and sleepless nights as the illness racked their children’s lives. Three-year-old Rishonn died soon after her diagnosis in 1999.

At times, Perry, a deeply religious man, railed at God. But neither he nor Kathrine was ever bitter. "We’ve found a God that cares for us tenderly," she explains. They were grateful when, two weeks before Christmas, a man identifying himself only as the chief elf called them at their Gardner, Kansas, apartment to ask if his group could bring their children some gifts. Perry and Kathrine agreed, knowing their kids would love the surprise.

What the Bices didn’t know was that as soon as the sun set on Christmas Eve, an elf crew was dispatched to the little house the couple recently had struggled to buy. Although they’d closed on the property two days earlier, they weren’t given a key (the Realtor was in cahoots with the elves).

Old carpet was pulled up and hauled off. New rugs and floors were installed. Twenty-six volunteers rolled on a coat of paint. Hours later, 26 more painters put on a second coat. Eight finishing carpenters nailed in moldings and baseboards. A building crew constructed a wheelchair ramp. Gifts were wrapped, and the trampoline was set up.

A Christmas tree was decorated with twinkling lights and ornaments. An elf who is also a car dealer donated a van. Another elf donated several months of mortgage payments. Others followed suit, bringing the total to more than $17,000. Each month’s payment was tied on a note that dangled from the tree’s branches. One last loving touch was nestled inside the tree – a tiny card, printed in script, courtesy of an elf who had kept his print shop open late.

By 6:30 a.m., as the etchings of Christmas morning streaked pink across the sky, the gifts were finally ready.

A rookie elf, a girl about 11 years old, presented the key to the Bices later that morning. "What’s this?" Perry asked. "A key? To what?"

Like a little phantom, the elf smiled, softly wished them a Merry Christmas, then ran off.

It dawned on Perry that perhaps the elves had left the gifts at their new home. He and Kathrine bundled up the kids and headed over. When the family opened the door, they couldn’t believe the sun-splashed walls, fresh Berber carpets and tiled floors. The lights of the tree drew them closer. Then they saw the mortgage payments and were overwhelmed.

After their tears were wiped away, Perry stood back and looked at the tree once more. That’s when he noticed the tiny envelope that was perched on a branch. Inside was the last gift, a gift of three precious words: “God loves you.”

Bice smiled, then nodded and placed it at the very top of the tree.

Let’s pray!