Category: Devotions

Wednesday 19^th

James 5:13-18

NIV (v16) – ‘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.’

ESV (v16) – ‘Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.’

‘The prayer of a righteous has great power as it is working.’ This one phrase tells us that prayer can achieve great results. James refers to Elijah of old, ‘Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit’, a recollection of what we find in 1 King 17, here in verse one, he declares ‘As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’ What a bold and a brave statement to make, but he was able to utter it because of the relationship he had with the LORD God, he was a righteous man and had strong faith in God. It is later in 1 Kings 18 that Elijah sends Ahab to go and to eat and to drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain, and three plus years after Elijah had declared it would not rain, it rained again. That is the faith of a righteous man. There are so many other examples of men and women who demonstrated a great faith in what God would do, perhaps some of the most incredible are found in Daniel and the three Hebrew lads, who when faced with severe opposition for their faith and trust in the living God, were willing to defy the authorities despite the resulting punishment, they had a resolute, unshakable faith and hope in God, look at what the three lads had to say, ‘Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”’ (Daniel 3:16–18) Whatever the outcome, whether they were saved or would perish they would not bow down because of their strong faith in God, and God came to their aid in a miraculous way, we know the story of Daniel, again a man who trusted God to the point where he also had faith to believe that God could come to his aid, and as a result God did, preserving his life in the den of lions.

As I consider these things, I feel that I need to join with the disciples in Luke 17:5 where it says that they said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ Perhaps too often we are like the man who cried out in Mark 9:24 ‘I believe, help thou my unbelief!’

Lord help us, help our unbelief to believe, to exercise faith for greater things to happen among us, faith to believe that as we are obedient in the anointing with oil and the laying on of hands that God will move among us and do great things.

An old chorus is ‘He hath done great things’ may we be able to say among us ‘He is doing great things’ to the glory of his name.

Tuesday 18th

James 5:13-18

NIV (v14) – ‘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.’

ESV (v14) – ‘Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.’

We have the third question that James asked, ‘Is anyone among you sick’ with his answer, ‘Let him call for the elders of the church . . .’

‘Is anyone among you sick?’ Within the context of these verses James points to one possibility of the cause of the sickness as being sin, verses 16 ‘Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.’ But it is important that we do not equate every sickness as being a result of an individual sinning or falling into a particular sin, although it all stems back to the fall. We know that there are sins that lead to sickness and ultimately to death, but sickness comes in many ways, it comes through the aging process, the outward man perishes, it can come because of the way in which we live our lives, unhealthy eating habits, or even through contamination, accident, allergies etc. I do not intend to try to define every area, but some sickness can come from falling into sin, and we should look in our lives to ensure that that is not a reason for any sickness in which we may be suffering. I remember very clearly about 10 years ago being with a group of Church leaders and there were two of us who were undergoing tests at that time for health issues and one of the leaders turned on us both in front of everyone else to declare that we were suffering because of sin in our lives – sadly he had fallen into the group of those who claim that if a believer is sick they have either sinned or do not have faith, he was not willing to accept that sickness can befall us all, even the most righteous of people get sick! But, whatever the reason for our sicknesses, James brings a resolution, ‘Let him call upon the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.’

I am glad that I belong to a company of God’s people who believe in this resolution as taught by James. I think that one of the difficulties of this pandemic has been our not being able to carry out this practise, but at the same time I know that the ministry of healing can still take place as we place our faith and trust in the name of the Lord as we call upon him. With the restrictions, the Lord is not restricted, he can still heal and deliver. But what if the sickness does not go away? Does it mean that there is a hidden sin? Maybe, in which case confession needs to take place and a definite resolution made not to fall back into it. Does it mean that I or the person praying does not have sufficient faith? Maybe, then we need to cry out to the Lord as the disciples did to increase our faith. We may conclude, I have no known sin to confess, I have faith to believe, the one praying for me has faith to believe but I am still sick, does it mean that I will have to live with the sickness? My answer would simply be that we leave it all in the hands of the Sovereign God, who has determined the course for each of our lives, he knows the way that we take, he knows the number of days in which he has allotted for us, and he is able by his grace to give us the strength to continue until that glorious day when all the inhibitions of living life here on earth will be over and done with and we shall be healed in every possible way as we receive the glorified body, that will be immortal and imperishable. That wonderful day when all suffering will be over, no more sorrow, no more tears and no more pain.

I have probably suffered with Crohn’s for over twenty years, after taking several years to identify the problem. I have been prayed for so many times that I cannot remember, I have had hands laid on me in such a forceful way that at times I felt that I was being used like a pneumatic drill and that my feet would poke up on the other side of the world in Australia, I have been anointed with oil on numerous occasions, I have gone through periods of attempting to identify if there is any sin in my life that needs confessing, I mention all this because I believe in divine healing, I have been used in healing, I have faith to believe – but at the end of the day I trust God, I trust in his sovereign purpose being carried out, I live by faith knowing that my life is in his hands, he knows what he is doing and I learn to trust in him alone. My hope is in him, my confidence is in him, my future is in him, if healing comes, then that will be amazing, but if not, then I rest in the assurance that it will come when I see him and be with him, and despite not knowing the healing myself I still stand on the word of God and believe in following this instruction which James is encouraging us to do in these verses, ‘call on the elders of the Church and let them pray over them, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord.’

Is anyone suffering? Then pray. Is anyone cheerful? Then sing praise. Is anyone sick? Then call for the elders of the church. Finally, ‘whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know, it is well, it is well with my soul.’

Monday 17th

James 5:13-18

NIV (v13) – ‘Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.’

ESV (v13) – ‘Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.’

This section starts off with three questions, giving an answer for each one of them. (v13) The first is ‘Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.’ The indication here is that if you are suffering, pray for yourself! It does not mean that we should not go to anyone else to ask them to pray for us when we are suffering, but it is a good starting point to firstly pray for yourself! Then ask others to pray. There is nothing wrong or selfish about praying for yourself, we should be concerned about our own personal wellbeing, we should feel able to come to the Lord in prayer to pray for our own needs, and especially as here in this text, when we are suffering.

The second is ‘Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.’ I would like to think that we who are born again are all within this category of being cheerful, but there are those moments where we feel more joyful or cheerful than at other times, especially if as in the previous point we are not suffering or as in the third point we are not sick, but cheerfulness should lead us to praise. I have been enjoying listening over the last few weeks to a particular channel on ‘Youtube’, from a Church in Northern Ireland, and I just love the singing that comes from there, but there is one song in particular that I enjoy, the congregation is singing the song, ‘Where would I be if Jesus didn’t love me’ and continues ‘I’m glad he did, so glad he did’ (I have listened to it numerous times) and the pastor is exuberant in leading this song and it is so true that we can be so glad because Jesus loved us, it leads us to be cheerful in heart. For we who have been born again should be cheerful, and I suggest that we should still be even when we are going through a difficult time, for the one who loved us and saved us is with us, and he is there to strengthen us and to support us, imagine suffering without Jesus! Sadly, many are, and it could be through us being cheerful even during a trial that they will see that we have that which they lack and which they are so desperate for. ‘Is anyone cheerful? Let him praise.’ It was Paul and Silas who taught us the valuable lesson of praise during trial in Acts 16, while in prison, not sure of what the day would bring, it says that at midnight they were praying and singing hymns to God. They fitted the bill for both these first two points, they were suffering – so they prayed, but at the same time they were cheerful – they sang hymns of praise.

One of the older hymns is ‘Come, let us join our cheerful songs with angels round the throne, ten thousand, thousand are their tongues, and all their joys are one’.

It is good to be a praising person, one who is willing to lift their voice to worship the Lamb that died, the Lamb who was raised and is seated as the exalted One, for praise is good and praise is right, so feeling cheerful? then praise the Lord, lift your voice, for as the same hymn continues, ‘Jesus is worthy to receive honour and power divine, and blessings more than we can give, be, Lord, for ever thine’. Would it not be sad if the sound from the choir was lacking because your voice or mine was missing!

Another more modern song, goes ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, your perfect love is casting out fear . . .’ it continues with ‘still I will praise you, Still I will praise you.’ Cheerful – then praise, suffering, yes pray for yourself, ask others to pray for you, but please do not stop praising, He is worthy.

We will come to the third question and answer tomorrow.

Friday 14th

James 5:7-12

NIV (v8) – ‘You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.’

ESV (v8) – ‘You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.’

This verse opens to us one of my favourite topics again, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one thing for sure that if James could say nearly 2000 years ago ‘the Lord’s coming is near’ (NIV) or ‘the coming of the Lord is at hand’ (ESV) then today it must be even nearer! Jesus is coming again, Jesus will come again, but on James’ advice we need to be patient, we need to stand firm in our faith. Standing firm knowing that the promise of his coming is not in vain.

If there is something this pandemic has taught us it is the need to be patient! Especially me, as I am not particularly good at waiting in a queue, let alone a long queue, and I as well as probably many of you who will read this will also have had queue more times than we would like to, as we have gone perhaps to a supermarket or another store. We have had to be patient in waiting for some things to reopen, wait patiently to be able to do some of the things we had learned to enjoy, but cannot do at present, and perhaps the top area is having to wait patiently to be able to spend time again with family and friends.

There will be so much excitement within the hearts of family members who will finally be able to meet up with children or parents again, grandchildren or grandparents again, the same with friends, eagerly anticipating the moment when the restrictions are gone, full and unbroken contact, together again at last.

I wonder if we have the same excitement and anticipation for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the believers James had written to, they obviously were waiting with excitement and anticipation, for James had to tell them they would have to be patient, and we too need to be patient, he will come again, and it could so easily be during our lifetime here on earth, but if not then the next generation will also have to wait with patience. But we need to wait eagerly, our heats should be filled with excitement that one day and it could be soon we are going to see the one who gave his life for us, the one who was willing to bear our sin, and to bear the punishment for that sin so that we could be included in the family of God, so that we could spend eternity in his presence.

Life isn’t always easy, we will have our ups and downs, we will at times have to suffer for being a believer, we will be mocked or scoffed at, but it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. So be patient, stand firm, knowing that your hope is not in vain, the day will come, whether it be via the rapture or through the resurrection when we shall see him and we shall be like him.

Sometimes the day seems long,

Our trials hard to bear.

We´re tempted to complain,

to murmur and despair.

But Christ will soon appear

to catch his bride away!

All tears forever over

in God’s eternal day!

It will be worth it all

when we see Jesus!

Life’s trials will seem so small

when we see Christ.

One glimpse of his dear face,

all sorrow will erase.

So, bravely run the race

till we see Christ.

At times the sky seems dark,

with not a ray of light;

We’re tossed and driven on,

no human help in sight.

But there is One in heaven,

Who knows our deepest care;

Let Jesus solve your problems,

just go to him in prayer.

Life’s day will soon be o’re,

all storms forever past;

We’ll cross the great divide

to Glory, safe at last!

We’ll share the joys of heaven:

a harp, a home, a crown;

The tempter will be banished,

We’ll lay our burdens down.

Thursday 13th

James 5:1-6

NIV (v3) – ‘Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.’

ESV (v3) – ‘Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.’

Sound investments are essential in the business world, how often do we hear of investments that have gone pear shaped, either through carelessness by the individual or company concerned, maybe through listening to wrong advice or the result of a downturn in the economy, causing markets to crash and big deals going wrong, causing failure and bankruptcy.

When I left school I wasn’t earning a very big wage, but I was given some advice to invest at least a little each month in a trust account, so I went into the bank and set it up, it was to be a fund that would remain in place for a period of four years, I was so glad that I did, for, at the end of the four years I had gained enough to be able to attend Bible College for a year, and what’s more a year in with the first fund I started another and that eventually became enough for us to put the deposit down on our first house. They both turned out to be sound investments. At the same time as I began to earn a little more money, I followed some advice to invest in another scheme, with the promise that it would lead to being guaranteed to being able to get a mortgage, however when the time for getting a mortgage arrived, no one would take on the scheme, I had been mis-sold and had to go down the route of an ombudsman to sort the issue out. Why have I included all this here in a devotion? It highlights the need for honesty and integrity with money, wealth, riches. In my two experiences there was the one side which was dealt with integrity by those involved, the other showed a lack of integrity, it was a scheme in which the one selling was getting richer and I the customer and possibly others like me were being misled, he acted without integrity and here in James 5:1-6, James is highlighting the need for integrity in the business world. He talks of the employer earning plenty and yet skimping on what he was paying the ones who were making the money for him, the employer was living in luxury with far more than he ever needed or could ever do anything with, while the employee was living by what I will call sub-standard means.

So much so that the difference was crying out to God, the parity between the employer and the employee was such that God saw it as unjust, the verdict being the wealth would rot a way, nothing would come of it.

What is the lesson James is wanting us to learn here? Integrity and honesty in matters of money and business, yes, but he is also showing that there needs to be a fairness in the way that employees are treated, and although it is something that should be so in all areas of life, even more so in the life of a Christian employer, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, we should treat others fairly, we should not be unjust toward others, we should if we happen to be a Christian employer, be a good example to others around us. It also teaches a lesson against greed, for the love of money is the root of all evil, note, not money, but the love of money, when making money becomes a person’s top priority, and making it consumes them, it must be pursued whatever the cost, it will become a god in their life, and it will eventually be their ruin. ‘For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ Luke 12:34

There is of course another application, we can accumulate a mountain of wealth and possessions here in this world, but it is only what we have invested for eternity will last. ‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.’ Matthew 6:19–20

Would I like to be richer? Of course, I would, but not if it is going to affect my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and with others. We need as Paul said, which I mentioned a few days ago to learn to be content, knowing that God knows the things that we have need for.

Tuesday 11^th

NIV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded’.

ESV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.’

We come to the last of the phrases in this cluster today, ‘Cleanse your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded’ James continues in the next verses with ‘Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom’. This is serious stuff! James is talking to those who we assume are believers and yet he is having to talk serious words to them concerning sin and double mindedness, we can take from this that the laughter they had and the joy they were expressing was not based upon anything spiritual but rather based upon their ongoing friendship with the world, the worldliness that he is addressing in this chapter. Therefore, there needed to be a repenting, a turning away from it, a drawing near to God again, and the genuineness of it would be demonstrated by the weeping or sorrow for the sin, and a change of attitude toward the sin.

It is in the ‘sermon on the mount’ that we have the words of Jesus who said, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ Being poor in spirit and the mourning here is all to do with repentance, it is a humbling of our hearts and a deep sorrow for our sin as we turn toward God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and James is encouraging the double-minded folk he is writing to here that they need to come to this place again of mourning for their sin, (their worldliness, friendship with the world) and of humbling themselves again before God, a returning back to their first love and commitment to him. James closes this little section with these words, ‘humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you’.

God does not like double mindedness, he does not allow and cannot allow us to sit on the fence, we have probably heard the phrase that Jesus is either Lord of all or not Lord at all, we cannot live in the kingdom of light and in the kingdom of darkness because it would require divided loyalty, we either serve Satan or live for Jesus, we cannot put our hand to the plough and look back, we cannot say we have decided to follow Jesus and yet live according to the model of the world, we cannot serve God and mammon.

I mentioned Joshua a few days ago, he called the people to make a choice, ‘Choose you this day whom you will serve’, may we choose Jesus, may we choose to draw near to God, may we choose to daily take up our cross and follow him.

Over the next couple of verses (4:11-12) James speaks of the need for integrity within our relationships with each other as brothers and sisters, we need to hold each other with respect and be honourable in the things we say about one another, it is a reminder again to guard our mouths.

Monday 10^th

NIV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded’.

ESV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.’

‘Draw (come) near to God, and he will draw (come) near to you’. Back in the early 2000’s I was busy painting the interior of the Church where I was then pastoring in Sudbury, Suffolk and I had some music playing and a song that I remember so well listening to time and time again was ‘Draw me close to you,

never let me go, I lay it all down again, to hear You say that I’m your friend,

you are my desire, no one else will do, ’cause nothing else can take Your place, to feel the warmth of Your embrace, help me find the way, bring me back to You. You’re all I want, you’re all I’ve ever needed, you’re all I want, help me know You are near.’ It is a song that has often come back to me especially in a time of need.

To draw near to God is to draw near to the safest place there is, to draw near to the greatest place there is and to draw near to the most intimate place there is, for in drawing near to God we are drawing near to the One who is in the words of a hymn, the hidden source of calm repose. We need to, we must draw near to God, it should be our hearts desire. In its context to the previous point we considered, ‘resist the devil’, we will find it much easier to do this if stay in proximity to the heart of God, for this to happen we need to have a perpetual desire to draw near or as the NIV puts it to come close to God. In my mind I see a picture of a baby snuggling up to its mother, or of the lambs in the field running to be close to their mothers when they see an intrusion or threat of some sort.  

We can come close to God by maintaining a regular relationship with him through our own daily devotion and prayer, also through (as I have often mentioned) being in fellowship with other likeminded believers, for as John in his epistle reminds us ‘and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.’ (1 John 1:3) and in the context of the verses surrounding these here in James 4 by ensuring that we move away from the world and the things that will so easily come between us and God.

The challenge I want to bring to each one of us today is two-fold, firstly, are we drawing close to God, staying in proximity to him, or is it possible that at this moment in your experience you have drifted a little or maybe even moved away from the heart of God? Can I encourage you to consider drawing near again, come close again and feel the heartbeat of his love toward you and feel the warmth of his embrace, secondly, maybe at this moment your life is filled with worry, care, or anxiety, and it is causing you to neglect your ongoing fellowship with God, it has become like a wedge that has come between you and God, well, listen to what he says, through his Son, ‘”Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”’ Mathew 11:28–30

Draw near to God, come near to God, come close enough to hand all that is causing you your worry, care and anxiety over to him for he cares for you. As Peter says, ‘Cast all your care on him,’ WHY? ‘for he cares for you’. Without wanting to sound irreverent, come and snuggle up closely to God, keep close to him, stay in that place of safety, security, and salvation.

They say that the calmest place during a hurricane is right at the centre, the eye of the storm, during the storms of life, the safest and best place to be is in the centre, close to the heart of God.

‘Draw me close to you, never let me go’, as you are willing to ‘draw near to God, he will draw near to you’.

Friday 7^th

James 4:1-12

NIV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded’.

ESV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.’

‘Resist the devil and he will flee from you’. What a different world this would be today if Adam and Eve back then in the garden of Eden had resisted the devil! But they did not, and the world became a mess.

The Scripture says the ‘the world lies in wickedness’ but thank God that all that the devil has done to kill, to destroy has been overturned by the message of the Cross, and we can know what it is to be restored and brought into a full and proper relationship with God again. But the devil is not a happy bunny, he knows that the Cross has meant that he is a defeated foe, he knows that the day is fast approaching where he will be thrown into the lake of fire and so he is doing all he can to continue to disrupt and to destroy individuals, and he will not stop at those who are still in the kingdom of darkness, determined to hold them captive, he will put all the effort he can to come after those who have been brought by God’s grace into the kingdom of light, the Kingdom of God, and James’ tells us that we need to learn ‘to resist the devil’.

‘The devil is a sly old fox, if I could catch him, I’d put him in a box, lock the door and throw away the key, for all the things he’s done to me.’ These are the words of a song we used to sing when I was growing up in Sunday School, thank God that there is one who has dealt the blow to the devil, and has the key, but we still need to learn to resist him, for he will try every trick in the book to try and to trip us up, lead us astray, hinder our walk with God and as Peter puts it to devour us. ‘Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith . . .’ 1 Peter 5:8–9.

How can we resist the devil? God has given us an armour to help us against the devil, we read of it in Ephesians 6, where we can stand against every attack that he will bring against us, we can resist him by knowing the Word of God, and as Jesus did, speak it out in times of temptation, we can resist him by remaining in close fellowship with other believers. I read this illustration recently, ‘a bundle of sticks cannot be broken, but separated they can easily be snapped’  If we are in regular, constant fellowship with other believers we are in a place of strength, if we isolate ourselves and lack the place of fellowship with others we can easily be snapped, and the devil would love to catch us unaware or on our own as it were to snap us. The previous phrase we covered was ‘submit therefore to God’, and I believe that this is also key to our being able to resist the devil, for in submitting to God we are placing our lives into the hands of the one who is our hiding place, our shield, our protector. Resist the devil, we can also rebuke the devil in the name of Jesus, and we can claim the power of the blood of Jesus, and he will flee, for in the name of Jesus we have the victory.

Thursday 6^th

James 4:1-12

NIV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded’.

ESV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.’

We come today to ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God’. As we go through life we get used to having to submit to those who are in a position of authority, it starts immediately we are born where we submit to our parents, we begin to go to school and submit to those who are in a place of authority as teachers and this continues as we go into the workplace and submit to the authority of those over us as employers or bosses. We submit to the authority of those in positions that govern our lives, such as the government and those in place to protect us such as the police force, but in every case the authority that they have is limited and must take place within certain boundaries.

In our text today we are told to, or rather should I say, encouraged to submit to God. God has a right to be in a position of authority over us, for as we are reminded throughout Scripture, he has made us, we belong to him, we are his created beings. But sadly, the willingness to submit to God was broken when Adam and Eve chose to disobey and to listen instead to the evil one. Ever since then mankind has struggled with authority, sadly, there are those who use their position of authority in an abusive way, there are those who just simply rebel or resist against authority and others who are just indifferent to it. But we need those in authority to keep the physical world and our enjoyment of it in check. In the same way we need the authority of God in our lives, left to our own whim and fancy we would be in a chaotic state, as we see when the authority of God or submission to God is avoided or rejected.

We submit to God by handing our lives over to him, that is why I will often refer to the importance of not just knowing Jesus as Saviour but also of both acknowledging him and accepting him as Lord, that is we need his saving grace and power, but at the same time we need to hand our lives into his capable hands, and we do this by submitting everything into his sovereign care. We not only verbally say he is Lord, but we allow him to be Lord. Lordship salvation is something that seems to be avoided today, we would rather make accepting Jesus an easy process, rather than emphasising as well that it is all about becoming a disciple, there is a need to give up and to let go, as James says, a need to submit to God. Coming to salvation requires us to acknowledge again the rule of God in our hearts and lives, allowing him to lead us and ensuring that we submit to him, obeying and following.

One of the older hymns is all about the Lord being the potter and of us being the clay, it starts with the words, ‘Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way,’ this is so different to how we are outside of Christ where we want our own way and to do our own thing, the song continues, ‘mould me and make me, after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still’. The final verse says, ‘Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way, hold o’er my being absolute sway! Fill with thy Spirit, till all shall see, Christ only, always, living in me!  What a prayer to make, but also, what a response to make as we heed this instruction from James, to ‘submit yourselves therefore to God.’ Maybe some of these older hymns need to be rediscovered so that the challenge will become apparent again in Christian services, where instead of just singing nice songs that make us feel good, we become challenged again regarding our daily walk and relationship with God as our Saviour, challenging us toward our submission to his divine will and purpose.

Wednesday 5^th

James 4:1-12

NIV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded’.

ESV (vv6-8) – ‘But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.’

Today we move to the phrase ‘therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’’

Humility is an essential characteristic in the life of the Christian, we touched on it earlier in James when we looked at chapter 1:9. In the context of our verse for today it clearly states that God gives grace to the humble, that is he comes to the aid of those who are lowly in heart. James 4:6 is a re-phrase of a quote from the Old Testament, Proverbs 3:34 ‘Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favour’ and is also found in 1 Peter 5:5 ‘Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”’

The whole of the Christian lifestyle should be that of humility seen in Philippians 2 as being those who ‘Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.’ Exemplified by the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ This means that we should live lives that are modelled on the kind of life that Jesus lived, a life of humility, thinking not of himself and his position of being equal with God, but thinking of others, in this instant, he was thinking of you and me and humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a Cross. This level of humility points to those of us who have been born again by the Spirit of God to being willing to stoop down to the lowliest of positions to serve others, to minister to others, and not to be haughty and thinking that we are better than anyone else.

We need to look at the obverse of the statement for today and ask an important question, Do I seem to be lacking in grace? If so, could it be because I have not been willing to humble myself, to be positioned in a place of humility, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’ it is Paul who teaches us an important lesson in humility where he says that he has learned to be content, whatever his circumstance or position, he says ‘I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ (Philippians 4:12-13) When he says ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me’ it is because of the grace that God gave him in his position of humility, for he reminds us in another place that when he was brought low because of ‘a thorn in the flesh’ he was promised grace that would strengthen him. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

May God keeps us all in a place of humility, a place which will keep us near to the heart of God, a place where we will find and receive the grace that we need, the place from which we will gladly serve others.