James told us in our passage yesterday that the troubles of this world produce perseverance in us when we react to them correctly. His words to us today indicate the purpose of God in our troubles and the willingness of God to provide us with the spiritual wisdom we need.
"Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:4) The Lord wants to thoroughly equip us for godly living. He has a purpose for everything He allows to come into our lives. He intends to do something for us through our troubles that He couldn't do for us any other way, so when we develop a rebellious and angry attitude we are cheating ourselves out of a blessing we were meant to receive.
Bad circumstances are not always a result of sin in our lives. A lot of our circumstances are inescapable. We can't help it if the company we work for goes broke and lays us off. We can't prevent every illness or injury of the body no matter how carefully we monitor our diets and no matter how often we exercise. We can be a good spouse to our marriage partner and still they may betray us or leave us. It's a natural human tendency for us to feel bitter when we know we've done our best and bad things happened anyway. It's easy for us to get angry, not just at whoever hurt us, but at God Himself. We know God could have prevented the bad thing from happening to us, so we wonder why He didn't. I can't give you the answer to that question. I haven't received an answer about some of the things that have happened in my own life. But there's one thing I can tell you: I wouldn't love the Lord the way I do if those things hadn't happened to me. I wouldn't know the things I know about Him now. I wouldn't have found His promises of grace and strength to be true if they hadn't been tested in my own life. And I certainly wouldn't be here studying God's word with you right now, because before hard times came I didn't have this kind of hunger for God's word. It's real to me now in ways it never was before. So although I don't know why God allowed some things to happen in my life, I can look back and see that He took those things and turned ashes into beauty (Isaiah 61:3) and took the things Satan intended for evil and used them for my good (Genesis 50:20)
Don't get me wrong. I've struggled against every trial that has ever come my way. I've begged God to take unpleasant things out of my life. I'm not saying we won't feel sad or discouraged or angry about our circumstances. But in order to receive a blessing we have to allow our troubles to drive us closer to God, not farther away from Him. He is our only help, our only source of comfort. If we don't draw closer to Him during hard times, how can He teach us anything? How can He bless us? How can He make us stronger and more powerful in the faith?
James says our troubles are intended to produce perseverance and that perseverance helps us to be mature and complete Christians. Troubles often make us feel confused and scatterbrained, unable to decide what to do next or whether we need to do anything at all, so James urges us to seek direction from the Lord. "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." (James 1:5) God isn't going to scold us for asking Him what to do. Like any loving father, God wants us to come to Him for advice. It's the best thing we could possibly do. It's a smart choice, a thing James knows from experience, because he daily needs to go to the Lord for advice about how to perform the office of the leader of the church at Jerusalem. James had an enormous amount of heavy responsibility on his shoulders and he knew he needed the Lord's help to make the right decisions.
We can take the words of James to the bank. We can go to God with the confidence that He is ready and willing to help us. "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." (James 1:6-8) The Lord rewards faith because faith is what pleases Him. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) We can do all manner of good works, we can pray lofty prayers, we can memorize Bible verses---but if we don't have faith the Lord is not pleased. So when we come to Him for help we must come to Him fully believing He is there and that He is listening and that He cares about us. We must come to Him fully believing He acts on behalf of those who love and seek Him.
I don't know what your earthly father might have been like, but when I was a little kid and would go to my father for help, I didn't cower in fear. I didn't slink into the room and ask him for help in an attitude of doubt. I knew my father loved me. I knew he was interested in my problems. I knew he would help me if he possibly could. This is how we are to approach our heavenly Father. God loves us and wants us to spend time with Him. He is interested in everything that's going on in our lives and, even though He already knows about our problems, He wants us to tell Him about them anyway. He will give us whatever we need. Granted, our idea of what we need may not always be what God knows we need, but we are guaranteed a blessing if we come to Him in the right attitude. He may completely turn our situation around in a miraculous way. I've had that happen, haven't you? Or He may intend for us to go through the situation because He's going to use it for our good. I've had that happen too, haven't you? But either way He wants to bless us by strengthening our faith and by giving us godly wisdom and by teaching us patience and perseverance. Just like our earthly fathers, our heavenly Father wants us to grow and mature into healthy adults in the faith. So don't harbor doubts when you go to Him for help. Go to Him in the confidence that He loves you and wants the best for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment