James 1:1-8 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. 2 My brethren, count

Transcription

1 Faith that Works

2 James 1:1-8 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

3 James 1:1-8 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind andtossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

4 One reality of faith is that it works in and through my experiences, which requires from me something that works against my nature, and that is patience. The scripture tells us that every man has received the measure of faith, or the seed of faith, which is the capacity to believe God and grow the faith that He has given us (Romans 12:3). Faith is God s gift to His people; our gift to God is an intentional commitment to take advantage of, and learn how to use, the gift that we have received.

5 To remind God we have faith does not move God, but when we show God what we have done with the faith He has given us, that in itself is His reward. We then have become stewards of God s faith and now have the responsibility to develop it and use it for the benefit of His kingdom. Responsible people who have faith then must be intentional and have a kingdom mindset about how they will use and develop that faith, not just for their own selves, but for the benefit ofhis work.

6 James says to count it all joy when we enter into diverse temptations or tests: joy, therefore, cannot be an emotion because tests do not cause a feeling equated with happiness or bliss, but the scripture is saying we must decide to operate out of a deeper understanding that produces joy. Joy is a deep sense of satisfaction and peace that resides in people who have faith to know that although their experience may be causing them pain, the satisfaction of what this pain will accomplish is even more rewarding. Faith needs time to grow; therefore, patience is something we must be willing to invest into our faith walk.

7 Faith needs patience to grow just as much as we need faith to grow within us. Again, faith is God s gift to us, but patience is our response to appreciate and receive the benefits ofthe faith that we receive. The mere fact that patience is required if faith is going to work means that to look for overnight results would be an assumption that will produce endless disappointments. Developing faith is not an overnight experience; it is an ongoing life struggle that happens over time, through experiences, and in spite ofthe outcomes.

8 While faith is a gift of God, the righteous must choose to live by faith as a lifestyle, not as a convenient tool ofself-gratification. This is why James says we need to ask for wisdom, not cars, houses, and material things, but the wisdom to know how to wait, the wisdom to know how to walk, and the wisdom to navigate through life while we wait for our faith to grow up.

9 Psalms 27: I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. 14 Wait on the LORD : be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

10 Isaiah 40: Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might heincreaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.