Tag Archives: James 1

Not ‘what if..?’ , but ‘what is!’

Leave a reply

The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbour, and casts no slur on others…. Whoever does these things will never be shaken.

(Ps 15.2,3&5)

“It is reported among the nations… that you are plotting..” I sent [Sanballat] this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.” They were all trying to frighten us…. Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling me what he said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

(Neh 6.5&8,17&19)

You, my brothers and sisters were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

(Gal 5.13-15)

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

(1 Cor 13.6&7)

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves and their religion is worthless..

(Jas 1.26)

As a follower of Jesus Christ, one called to live for and with him in a fallen world, I am not given a set of rules to follow for daily living, but rather a person – a holy, pure and loving person whose perfections are both an inspiration and a challenge to me. By the power of the Holy Spirit within me, I believe that I am being made more like Jesus, that each hour and day of my life is seeing his likeness formed more clearly within me and – I pray – that means that I am fulfilling my purpose within his kingdom.

This transformation is not some airy-fairy thing of feelings, or transcendental experience, but totally grounded in practical things – it affects every aspect of my life, all my interactions with other people, both within and outwith my christian family and community. My actions, my use of my time and money, the priorities which direct my decision making and lifestyle, and my words…. friends, our words are part of what God wants to bring into conformity with Jesus too, so that we use them well!

I am reading the gritty and messy story of the return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple and the city after 70 years of exile, under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, and sadly God’s people were not doing terribly well at using their words for the good of the whole community. The social structures, the power and influence wielded by the enemies of God’s people, were having a very dangerous impact on morale. Rumours were spreading, half-truths were being proclaimed, and the godly leaders were being slandered… and the people of God were part of this messy, malicious and potentially catastrophic movement.. shame on them for letting themselves be sucked in to such trouble-making!

But, before we judge them for their actions, we need to take a look at ourselves, and recognise just how insidiously attractive such gossip can be, how delicious it is to speculate on what we do not know, and how easily we fall into this same dangerous pattern of behaviour. We forget that to love our neighbour, means to love truth enough to reject gossip; to refuse to speculate; to hope for the best in a bad situation and always to seek good.

In an age where false information is rife, it is even more necessary for the people of God to love truth; to despise gossip and to refuse to take part in speculation based on half-truth or ignorance. We must learn to hold our tongues and to love others well enough to speak only truth about them. Discretion, confidentiality and a continual discipline of holding fast to truth, are all marks of a faithful and useful servant of God, one who can be trusted with responsibility in the kingdom.. in this way, we can serve the body of the church and not harm it, strengthening instead of undermining it.

Heavenly Father, renew in me a love for you and for my neighbour which will make me also love truth. Let my speech be courteous, considered, and let me learn discretion so that I can be silent and keep the troubles of others private. Deliver me from the slippery path of gossip and speculation, and help me to stand and speak firmly from what is true, instead of being tossed on the waves of ‘what if?’  Thus may I serve and glorify you, and be a blessing to your people. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

spare me the closed ear…

Leave a reply

Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you.. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you..

(Deut 6.3,6&18)

Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? .. You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen.

(Isa 42.18&20)

The Sovereign Lord … wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.

(Isa 50.4&5)

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.

(Jas 1.22-25)

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches…

(Rev 2.7)

When my children were small, distracted and impatient of instruction or parental caution, I would sometimes ask them to listen to me with their eyes as well as their ears… I reckoned that if they were concentrating both eyes on my face, they were a good deal more likely to be concentrating their minds on my words! The faculty of hearing is repeatedly referred to in the bible as of crucial importance in responding to God’s revelation of himself, and always the inference is that unless one responds in obedience, one is not really listening, not hearing properly.

If I claim to be attuned to God’s voice, alert to his instruction, and yet continue to make choices and behave in ways which contradict his will, then I am not actually hearing him at all. I have closed my ears to his voice, and am listening instead to my own desires, or to the cultural voice which speaks more pleasingly. It was this sin into which the people of Israel fell, and were repeatedly warned against by the prophets. All their boasted faithfulness to God was in practice a willed deafness to his call to obedient witness and dependence on him. They paid a very high price for that persistent rebellion, and I need to learn from their story to be humble and aware of the danger of complacent self-assurance.

To have faith in God, is to make no distinction between hearing and obeying, and we are thankful that it is God’s gift which enables us to respond to him in this way. Apart from his grace, we are bound in a deafness which amounts to fatal rebellion against our maker and redeemer.

In Jesus, we see that perfect listening obedience which enabled him to do all that God entrusted to him, to speak God’s words and to proclaim the coming of the kingdom with such power. In Jesus, we see one who heard and trusted, whose unique understanding of God’s will bore fruit for our salvation. He is our constant companion and our good shepherd; he always knows God’s will, and can carry it to completion. We can therefore walk in confidence with him, knowing that he fully hears and understands the Father’s will and we can trust him always, whether we understand or not.

It is the Father’s will and gift that we should hear and obey him in faith; it is our good Shepherd’s voice which comforts us along the way and restores us when we have become weary or gone astray; it is the Spirit who quickens us to listen with our full attention, desiring only to discern God speaking that we might delight him in our obedience.

Heavenly Father, quicken my spirit to concentrate fully on you as you speak to me through your word. Let me hear you clearly, let hearing be obedience, submission, loyal love and trust. Let the likeness of Christ be seen more and more in my readiness to put your words into practice, and give you all the glory in my life.

To do lists…

Leave a reply

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.

(Ps 119.97-99)

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.

(Rom 12.1)

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

(Gal 6.9&10)

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people..

(Eph 6.18)

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

(Col.3.23&24)

And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ..always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

(1Thess.5.14-18)

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves….whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.

(Jm 1.22&25)

One of the most insidious weapons which the devil uses against me – and very possibly against many other believers – is to play on my desire to glorify God in my life, my desire to become more like Jesus.

Does that sound like a contradiction? I can assure you it is not. This very good and proper thing – like so many other good things – can be manipulated and twisted into a weapon which disables the believer and causes them endless trouble. I know, because it happens to me so often.

The great love of God for me, his grace in forgiving and making me a child in his family, call forth a response of love, of a hunger to please him and show how much I value all that I have been given, and also how amazing he is. This is very right and proper…but then with a very clever twist, the devil gets me to begin thinking about just what that right response should look like in my life – what is the “right” thing to do here and now? For an over-thinker, a perfectionist, and one who hates to upset anyone, that question is a lethal, paralysing power that goes straight to my heart and destroys my peace.

Firstly, the list of things which we are called to ‘do’ in response to our calling as redeemed children of God is quite daunting – so much to be prayed(continually?!) for, so much scripture to be meditated on (day and night!); so many people in physical and spiritual need to be reached out and ministered to. How does anyone manage to hold down a full-time job, run a family, pursue their God-given talents and skills in recreation, as well as doing these things which are commanded? How can I hold conversations with people at the same time as praying continually? How can I study and write essays, or take part in meetings and make business decisions at the same time as meditating on scripture?

When I put it that way, you can see it is nonsense, and since God has called us to interact with people, to serve him in our labours, to be godly parents, spouses, siblings, then these things also must be right. But just how does it work in practice? Perhaps now you see why I described it as a ‘paralysing’ question?!

Secondly, when I begin to think about prayer and scripture meditation, about serving others and sharing the gospel, I am invariably overwhelmed by the awareness that I do none of these things ‘as well as other people’. That is a dangerous phrase – when you hear it in your thoughts, take warning and realise that the devil is needling at your peace of mind, at your acceptance as a child of God and perfect in his sight.

I do not have answers to this challenge, I live with the questions; what does God desire that I should do with the limited time, talents and opportunities he has given me?

But I take great comfort from the word given to the Colossians – “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord…” – and from the sure knowledge that God sees my heart, and understands my weaknesses. Let me learn to trust his grace to be sufficient – I can never be ‘right’ in what I do, and that is ok with him, because his strength is made perfect, seen most clearly, in all the ways that he does things ‘right’, weaving all my best efforts into his beautiful whole.

Against self-pity

2 Replies

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him…and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

(1 Peter 1.6-9)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

(Hebrews 12.2)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

(James 1.2-4)

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ…..I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings…

(Philippians 3.7&10)

I am often guilty of wishful thinking; of comparing my situation to that of other people and wondering why I should have to bear my particular burdens. I know this is foolish – who knows what hidden struggles and trials plague the lives of others? I know it is sinful, and yet I find myself longing, wondering, scheming to find a way out of my own personal darkness.

I resent my sufferings; I don’t want anyone else to have to bear them, but I don’t want them either! And then I read these words from Paul…and Peter…and James, and am rebuked and see clearly what my attitude is saying.

I am accusing God of dealing unfairly with me; of giving me a burden which is too great for me to carry; of asking too much; I am refusing to trust that this God – who has so devastatingly shown his love for me on the cross – has my best interests at heart. I consider Jesus, my saviour, and also my example of obedient, holy living, and am ashamed of my disobedient, grumbling attitude.

We are taught that our sufferings have a purpose – the maturing of our faith, until it becomes like pure gold in which the maker can see his own likeness clearly reflected – but that can produce a stoic, teeth-gritting determination rather than a humble, thankful acceptance. I believe that there is another element to the process, which can transform our attitude. Have you ever considered that once we are in glory with Christ, we will never again have the privilege of suffering anything at all in his name and for his sake? There will be nothing to endure, only to enjoy!

Our trials in this world are our opportunity to prove God faithful in his promises to strengthen, comfort and keep us.  When, in the mystery of his will, we are permitted to experience trials and troubles of every kind, then I believe that he is inviting our partnership in the process of creating Christ-likeness in us. The late Helen Roseveare, missionary doctor and one who suffered much at the hands of the Congolese rebels in 1964, wrote of how God spoke to her in the midst of great suffering:

“Was He saying to me,’Yes, I could have kept you out of this situation: I could have rescued you….but I thought I could trust you to go through this with me, as I have a plan and purpose for the future..Can you thank me for trusting you with this experience even if I never tell you why?” (Count it All Joy; Helen Roseveare 2017)

If, when faced with our own particular trials, we take refuge in self-pity, in blaming God, and devote all our energies to getting out of the situation by our own efforts, then I believe we are neglecting an opportunity – to grow in faith; to let God shape us through this particular experience of leaning and depending on him; to witness to his power at work in our situation and above all to glorify Jesus by our desire to offer our suffering up in worship. In my own experience, it is in the darkest nights that the tenderness of my Lord’s love is most dear, most present – shall I refuse to meet him there again?

I, the least of the Lord’s servants, am being counted worthy of suffering in his name – and I have his example to inspire me – scorning the shame, and for the joy that is to come, I can receive my trials as a means of blessing. The missionary and author Elisabeth Elliott – who like Dr Roseveare proved God faithful through many trials – puts it perfectly:

“Refuse self-pity. Refuse it absolutely. It is a deadly thing with power to destroy you. Turn your thoughts to Christ who has already carried our griefs and sorrows.”

Oh Loving God, Heavenly Father, grant me wisdom, faith and courage, to trust you and embrace all that you choose to permit in my life, for your glory and the blessing of others.

A gentle prod in the right direction..

1 Reply

So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion, for the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help.

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. ..Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or the left.

(Isaiah. 30.18-21)

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.

(James 1.5&6)

I believe in a God who promises to guide and direct his children; a God who desires their ultimate good, which may lead through times of trial and suffering as well as times of ease, comfort and plenty.

I have experienced in my own life these last 18 months, the clear directing of that loving hand, as my husband and I were invited to consider this new place of ministry, and one by one, the objections fell away, and the doors opened even before we pushed them! As the days and months go by, we are deeply at peace here, absolutely convinced that God desires us to work and live in this remote place, within a small community, things we have never done before. He called, and He is enabling, generously!

On a personal level however, I am still seeking guidance and direction, since I am not the parish minister, only his backup team, and that is not a full-time job! I do not know yet, just what my life here is to consist of – whether paid employment alongside housekeeping and church work; or a small mosaic of voluntary occupations, serving as well as I can. I am waiting..a recent job application led to a clearly closed door – an answer of sorts for the moment.. and I wait.

I am getting to know people, using my own interests and things which bring me joy to make connections which might grow into relationships within which I can share Christ. But these are quite selfish ways to use my time, and it has been pointed out to me quite forcefully, that the relationships are principally with folk my own age or older, not the younger members of the community..

There are many good things which need to be done – both church and community based – but I don’t think awareness of a need constitutes a call that I should fulfill it – God knows that none of us can stretch that thinly. How am I to discern what to do? I follow the advice of James, the ever practical apostle, and ask – and keep asking, not only for guidance, but that I might recognise it when it comes! I wait, trying to use my time well, but not committing to anything permanently, testing out the different opportunities and asking for that voice to speak clearly.

Father God, your child is  stumbling a little; unsure of her footing and of the way, she looks for your hand and strains to hear your voice: Fulfill your promise and guide her.

Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: you spoke to your children so clearly at times, directed their ways and they knew what to do: Fulfill your promise, and guide this child now.

Delivering God, who confronted Moses in the desert from within the fire, speaking with power and then led your people by fire and cloud up from slavery, fulfill your promise, and lead this child.

You see her heart’s desire is to glorify you; and she longs to know how this is to be done, here, now, in this place; fulfill your promise Lord, and grant her heart’s desire.

Purify her heart and thought of all that would mislead her, tune her ears to hear your voice, strengthen her will that she might obey if the call is to some work which she finds daunting.

Above all Father, so fill her heart with love for her precious Lord, that any labour for him is a privilege, no matter how humble, and any sacrifice of selfish pleasure is worthwhile.

Only let her know that she is doing your will, for the blessing of her community and the glorifying of your Son’s wonderful name.

Amen