Endurance (James 1:1-4)

So for the rest of these I may put Jacob rather than James but we will see. I know the books is known as James, but as his name is Jacob, feels odd to call him James. As we go through this text will probably call a few things out. I know there have been many a moment when I couldn't say Amen and had to say ouch. Those were the moments I knew GOD was growing me more as I laid it down before The Cross, so too we get to. Will we practice the ways of The Deceiver and be a heel or will we be honest with HIM and let HIM work out in us what isn't meant to be there in the first place? And yes, we will be bouncing around the text as always because the truth of the Bible is this: It is not an owners manual to being human. It's a love letter written to the broken and those in need, and know it.

This verses today, and I really could do it verse by verse or as the whole book in one go. As the whole text today's verses are held close to 1:17, "Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from GOD our Father who created all the lights in the heavens, HE never changes, as a shifting shadow does." That the trials are not a gift from GOD, they are a place for great joy because HE is working all things to the good of those who love HIM. Understanding at the core, in the heart, what we tend to miss, it's more about trusting HIM than it is thinking about our own issues.

Look at it not from Jacob (James) but from B'midbar (Numbers): When the tribes spent their time complaining that GOD wasn't doing God right and that they wanted to go back to their pain because it was easier, it grieved HIM. All this good being done to them, food from heaven, water from rocks, money in their accounts out of nowhere and rather than praise spend the time complaining that "It's not enough" to the GOD of More-Than-Enough. Ask any parent, you're less inclined to shower your children with gifts and blessing when they don't know the words "Thank you". Why would it be different with our Good-Good-Father, our ABBA? I mean we don't praise to get stuff we praise to say thank YOU for all HE has done. If you can't think of anything to praise HIM for, why did you abandon your memory stones? Better yet, why are you listening to lies that say you haven't been blessed when you are still here, standing? IF you can't and want to... ask and HE will remind you, start with just a hunt of trust and gratitude that HE IS Greater and then watch HIM move. HE is good, and though there are some parents who would give a stone over bread or a snake over a fish, HE will not! And dealing with parents who would gives you a chance to praise because in HIM you get to see what real love looks like. Not the false and broken human forms of it but real, true, Love from the Only REAL there will ever be, has ever been. The I AM.
Don't believe me? Test and see. Say thanks and see what happens. ^.^