Growing Gratitude | living gratefully with my time

James 5:12–18 NIV

12 Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned. 13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

How we are present with God

Orson wells invasion

James is focusing on words. He does that quite often at different points in this letter. He is making the point that our words matter. The kind of language we use and the tone of our conversations are important. So, maybe at first glance this passing comment from James in verse 12 seems out of place—to be careful about the sincerity of our words. At first glance it doesn’t seem to really fit with what James writes before, and set all by itself it doesn’t seem to really fit either with the verses that follow. But given the back-and-forth way in which James brings up the importance of our words at various points throughout this entire letter, maybe it’s not out of place at all. Maybe this is instead a tying together of the theme that James is pushing in this letter right from the start.

Our words matter. It seems especially here before God that our words matter. There is no such thing as a poker face that works with God. There is no hiding from God what is really going on in our hearts and in our minds. God always knows our true intentions. God always knows our honest feelings. God sees right through the smokescreen we often put up to shield our true thoughts from other people.

This seems to be what James is circling back to in this one verse that leads into the conclusion of his letter. It is a reminder to us about what it truly means for us to honestly and authentically present with God. It does not do any good to say the words that I love Jesus if—in fact—in my heart I do not actually embrace a true love for Jesus. God knows it. There is no point trying to convince God with my words that I confess and am sorry for my sins if—in fact—I am not sorry at all for my sinful actions.

Am I honest with God about what’s really in my heart?

That’s the simple meaning of what James is telling us in this verse. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. In other words, be completely honest with God because you cannot fake it with him. Putting on a show of righteous piety for others to see does not impress our heavenly Father if those actions do not genuinely come from the heart.

Instead, let your time spent in the presence of God be time of open and honest sincerity. Be real with God. If you find that your faith is weak and you have doubts, confess that before God from an honest heart. Be fully present with your heavenly Father as you actually are. Stay away from going through the motions of expected religious feelings that do not actually represent your true hurts, your true struggles, your true desires, your true hopes, your true joys.

God calls himself your heavenly Father. God calls us his sons and daughters. He invites us to be completely open in the way we approach him as a small child would be completely open in the way he or she approaches a parent. If you are sad and struggling, let God know you are sad and struggling. If you are happy and full of joy, let God know you are happy and full of Joy. God invites that kind of relationship. It is a relationship in which we do not have to hide anything or bury any true feelings.

Let my words with God be real

So then, in our prayers and in our words with God, be fully and completely present with God. Be who you actually are. Do not pretend to be whatever it is you think God wants you to be, because God always sees right through that masquerade.

What does that look like for you today? What are the ways in your own life that you have been putting on a show for God? How have you been going from one day to the next trying to convince God that maybe you’re this super awesome spiritual person, when—honestly—somewhere deep down in your heart you know it’s not exactly real?

You see, sometimes religion starts to become more about putting on a show than about a true and honest reflection of a real relationship with God. I pretend to be present with God. But without an honest and authentic heart before God, I am really not being fully present with God at all. It may be that in my heart I am actually trying to do everything that I can to push God away because I do not want to be honest and genuine with him. The first example we ever see of something like this comes in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve sin against God. And then, instead of coming into the presence of God with the honest and genuine confession of their action, they try everything they can to hide from the presence of God.

Growing gratitude takes time to be present with God

Hard to do when I am trying to hide my heart from God

This message today is about growing a heart of gratitude. But here’s the thing about gratitude. Developing gratitude in my life is really hard to do while trying to hide from God at the same time. There might be many virtues we can say about the benefits of becoming a more thankful person. But perhaps the biggest roadblock keeping Christians from embracing that kind of gratitude comes from our own pattern of pushing away from God, from being fully present with God.

The expression of gratitude in my life can only take shape when it is fully present with others. And the first checkbox I have in moving toward this life of gratitude is to see that I am honestly and authentically present with God.

How we are present with each other

Let’s move on. James launches into these final verses of his letter with some final instructions. This might look random. What is James going after here? He makes a very brief reference to prayer in chapter one, and then says nothing about it again throughout the rest of the letter. So why bring it up in such a rapid-fire manner here in these last verses? Is it sort of an afterthought? Is James just trying to quick tack on something completely off-subject before he hangs up? Oh, by the way, I almost forgot. Hang on a second, one more thing. These verses about prayer just really float by themselves and don’t fit at all with anything else James writes in this letter.

So, what’s going on here? I agree with many biblical commentators who note that prayer is a subcategory. James is not giving guidelines or instructions about prayer. Rather, he is giving guidelines and instructions on being honest, genuine, and authentic about how our faith looks with God and with one another. And THAT is a theme which fits with the rest of the letter. Prayer just happens to be the application of that theme in these closing verses.

Honest, open, genuine, authentic, vulnerable

In other words, these are verses from James that give us a few clues about what it means to be fully present with one another. This is a picture from James about living with each other in such a way that we connect with an honest and authentic faith. James says, confess your sins to one another. Nothing cuts more deeply to the core of an authentic connection than being vulnerable enough to admit our sins to another person.

These are not just instructions from James about the busywork of Christian activity. These are not secret clues for unlocking some kind of magical power in the way that we approach prayer. This is about stepping into our faith in such a way that it shows up in real life connections between real people.

NOT: fake, hypocritical, two-faced

But let’s admit, vulnerability is hard. Sometimes it’s tough to be open and honest with others. I think we’ve all felt the nudge sometimes to make ourselves appear a little better than we actually are. We’ve all been in situation where we see other people pretending to be something other than what they are. We have words to label behavior like that. Two-faced. Hypocritical. Fake.

It’s hard to carry on an actual meaningful relationship with someone who is only being hypocritical and fake with you all the time. Or let me flip that around. It’s hard for other people to truly connect with me when I won’t be honest and authentic about myself with others. It’s tough to practice and build faith in community with others when I portray my faith in ways that simply are not accurate to what’s really going in in my heart.

Growing gratitude is hard while also pushing away from each other

Be real about your faith when you’re together

Be real about your faith when you’re together. That’s the message James is after. Be present with one another in ways that strengthen and build up your faith together.

This takes time. It takes a commitment of time to live in a way that is truly present with others. And if you are at all like me, then you know what it’s like to live in a busy world in which there are always new demands being pressed upon our time. I mean, this all sounds wonderful, but how do I do this? How do I live as someone who can more consistently be showing gratitude with others in the way I use my time? How do I go about being more authentically present with other people?

story of fisherman

It sounds awesome to me if I could just flip a switch and slow everything else in my life down to make the most out of every day to live gratefully with my time in how I am present with other people. But I’m afraid that for me it has taken many years of gradually making myself busier and busier to arrive at the frantic pace of life I am in today. That’s our world.

So, what do we do about that? Maybe it isn’t exactly realistic to turn the whole thing around. But it is realistic to at least turn one thing around. And then after a while start turning another thing around. And take it one step at a time learning to be more grateful with my time by gradually practicing more and more honest presence with each other.

Can I be the first one here to admit that I have work to do in this area? Maybe you’ve all got this one figured out. But if James says one of the ways we practice this is by confessing our sins to one another, then I need to confess that I have a tendency to consume my week with administrative details. And I could certainly do well to turn that around and spend more time just being present with other people. I have the tendency to spend my time in God’s Word looking for sermon angles. And I could certainly do well to turn that around and spend more time in God’s Word just being present with God.

One step I can take this week:

What about you? What is one step you can make this week to turn something around and be more actively present with the other people around you? Maybe your step this week is to have certain dedicated times when your smartphone is turned off and put away. Maybe it means turning the TV off when other people are in the room. Maybe it means one less meeting or one less activity or one less night out away from family (or one less night at home all by yourself). Pick one thing that makes sense for you to do this week that helps you to use some time in focused presence with other people.

This is where a grateful heart begins. It begins when we can be open and honest before God in his presence. And it moves to a place in which we can share our time with one another in ways that are real and genuine and authentic. Because that’s a way to use my time which says to other people: I value you; you matter to me. We all could make steps to do this better. I know that I need to make steps to do this better.

How God is present with me

Now let’s talk about the key that makes this whole thing work. Because if I left it right here then this message would be nothing more than a self-help guide for how to become a better person. If I left it right here, then maybe we would all leave this place feeling overwhelmed and little bit beat up when we look at all the ways we fall short.

Christian faith is not about what I do, it is about what God has already done

But let’s remember this today. The Christian faith is not about what I do or need to do or fail to do. The Christian faith is about what God has already done, and what God continues to do. The Christian faith sets itself apart from every other religion of the world in that we have a God who sets everything aside and empties himself in order to come and be present with us. Jesus left his heavenly glory to enter this world and live among us as one of us. When it comes to being present with God, you and I don’t have to make the first move. God has already made the first move. God has already done it. Jesus has already cleared the way for his presence to be with us and remain with us forever.

I am not far away from God, God is actively present with me right now

So, before you go walking out of here today thinking to yourself, Oh no, I’ve got so much more I need to do before I can be present with God. Oh no, I am so very far away from God right now. NO! You are not. You are not far away from the presence of God right now. in fact, you cannot get away from the presence of God even if you tried. You cannot run away from God. Just ask Jonah…he tried, it didn’t work.

Even before Jesus ever came into this world as a baby, King David declared in Psalm 139,

Psalm 139:7–12 NIV

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Gratitude: not a task I need to accomplish, but a response to what is already here

Today—right now—my heart is grateful. I am grateful because I know beyond a shadow of any doubt that God is here and he is present with us. I know that his love can never be shaken. I know that he will never leave us. I know that my life of gratitude—which shows up in the way I use my time—is not a task I need to accomplish on my religion checklist. No. My life of gratitude is a response of thanksgiving to God for all that he has already done for us, for all that he continues to do for us, for all the ways he has been present with us in the past, and for all the ways he continues to be present with us right now.