I had a pretty rough week last week, it felt like I was running on a really low emotional battery. I wonder if any of you reading this can relate to feeling that way, are there some days that just seem difficult for you to go through? I would like to know how you overcome those days. For me, I just spend my time trying to go through my normal routine and pray about it. I didn’t automatically feel better, in fact towards the end of the week things seemed to get harder for me, coupled with the fact that I had a cold, I felt like I was dragging myself or more accurately, God was dragging me to just finish my tasks for each day. By Saturday I was in a much better headspace and I was just thankful that I had managed to get everything done for that week, which wasn’t a lot. As humans, I think sometimes it may be inevitable to have days like that. My advice? Keep moving, spend time talking with other people (this is so important), pray and just know that moment is going to pass.
Now, let’s get into today’s main blog post. Last week might have been rough but as I said, I kept my routine and I was scheduled to start a bible study on the book of James and I’m so glad I did it despite feeling emotionally low because do I have some cool things to share with you! Let’s go!
James 1:1
James begins by introducing himself as “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” and this got me thinking about the topic of identities. An identity is a sense of who someone is and so James was basically saying he was submitted to God’s will in every aspect of his life because that is who a servant is, someone submitted to the will of his master. For James, if he could sum up his entire life, it would be “servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This led me to the question, what is your identity? If you’ve never considered it before, now is a good time to do so. Who do you want to be? What do you want to define you? If you don’t know yet, that’s okay, start the process of discovering who you are and/or who you would like to be but I must warn you, no one can find their true self without Jesus. It may feel like you know who you are but your true assurance can only come from seeing yourself as your maker sees you.
James 1: 2-4: The command, the reason, and the reward.
Verse 2 gives a command when it says “count it all joy”, verse 3 gives us the reason for this command when it says “knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” and verse 4 tells us what the end result, the reward, for complying with the command is “that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Let’s break it down.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
James 1:2 KJV
The command: As Christians, our reaction to trials should always be joy. That’s the formula that must be applied every single time. But you may wonder, how can I have joy when I’m going through hardships? It doesn’t make sense and you will be right for wondering. Here’s how I think we can “count it all joy”. We are able to have this joy because we fix our eyes on Jesus, realizing that He is more than enough for us and that He never leaves us nor forsakes us. We have the assurance that no matter what happens; it will always end in our victory and in His glory. We’re also empowered to have joy by the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
James 1:3 KJV
The reason: This is the place of why? We know the how but why should we count it all joy and the simple answer is that when our faith is tested through trials, our patience/endurance is being built. In this space, we find even more reasons to trust God and believe in His character even when a lot of things aren’t there or aren’t the way we want them. Patience is willing to wait if necessary and endurance is the ability to endure hardships.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1:4 KJV
The reward: When endurance, patience, is fully developed in us, it results in a complete man i.e. a mature Christian that has moved beyond surface level Christianity and that is able to trust God and see His faithfulness in every situation. Such a person develops an unshakable faith, which is a faith that God desires for us to have. The bible says “let patience”, so this tells me that there’s a probability that someone can refuse to develop patience during the testing of faith. One way we can refuse is when we refuse to have joy, when we refuse to see God’s faithfulness in hard times and if patience does not have its perfect work, we cannot be perfect, complete or entire. Such a person’s faith remains unshakable which is not what God wants for us.
Chapter 1 of the book of James has 27 verses but I’m only sharing this 4 with you today with the hope that it ministers to you the way it ministered to me. I hope you would consider choosing Jesus if you haven’t already as all it requires is a simple prayer of “Lord Jesus come into my life and make it yours, I forsake my ways and choose to follow you instead, in your name I’ve prayed, Amen.” Until next time, have joy!
