James 4:6
James teaches us the truth about God’s grace and how we experience it through this journey we call life… Jesus taught His disciples that in order to find your life you must lose it for His sake… We each have a cross to bear and Christ will give us the power, grace, energy and endurance to bear it… James informs us today that if you want to live you must die, if you want be rich you must become poor and if you want to be exalted you must be humbled… God is a God of faithfulness and He demonstrates it by lifting you up when you fall… Every trial that you encounter serves a purpose in your life, every obstacle that you face was ordained and appointed by God and every storm that approaches your door teaches you to lean and depend on our heavenly father… James says, “But he giveth more grace…” Grace is something that is given that isn’t deserved, a gift that is out of thoughtfulness, kindness and compassion… Even though you don’t deserve it, God gives you more, even when you mess up, He gives you another chance, when you walk through the wrong door (temptation), and He opens another to get you back on track… God cares about you, God’s compassion was demonstrated when He sent His only begotten son to die for our sins…
Today we are reminded that God is able to make all grace abound to you, one of my sisters once told me, “You never tell God how big your storm is, you simply tell the storm how big your God is…” There is a lot of substance in that statement, James starts off his book by telling us that we should consider it pure joy when we face trials and temptations… We can be joyful in storms not because of the rain, but because you have shelter and will see the sun shine again… You can be joyful in times of sorrow, not because of the tears that flow, but because of the happiness soon to come… God has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us and the truth of the matter is the greater the hurdle in front of you, the more grace God is about to deposit into your life… James message today should encourage us to run on, it should inspire us to hold on and keep us determine to be victorious… James not only encourages us today about the grace that God will provide, but he also reminds us that we must remain humble… “God resisteth the proud…” A proud person becomes arrogant, self-exalting and only cares about things that will affect him/her… God resisteth them because we are called to put others before ourselves, we are called to love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use us…
This is not something that we can do on our own nor is this something that comes natural… It is because of this that we are told that God will give us more grace, the ability to love others, the ability to look beyond faults, the ability to forgive is deposited in us by the grace of God… The more we allow Him to deposit in us the more we grow in our faith and relationship with the Lord… As we humble ourselves, we always see people who are doing the exact opposite… It’s hard to remain humble and accept the position of low estate when we see men of this world seeming to thrive and be prosperous… As Paul taught, we are striving for the incorruptible crown, the crown of righteousness that is only rewarded to those who remain steadfast in their faith… We will experience people who will mock our Christianity, people who will make fun of our hardships, be we can take courage in knowing that those who labor in the Lord never labor in vain… Judgment Day is approaching; we all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of our lives… God isn’t going to ask about how many fancy cars you have, but He will ask how many rides you gave… God won’t ask about the house you built, but He will ask about how many people you gave shelter too… God won’t ask about how many five star restaurants you ate at, but He will ask about how many people you helped to feed… Take pride in you humble state, for you know that not only will God give you the grace to survive, but you will be exalted in due time… The bible says that we will reap a harvest if we faint not… Don’t faint because of what you see around you, don’t faint because of the promotion that others have received, keep the faith and you will experience the true and pure riches of Christ that will outweigh anything of this world…
ALL FOR HIS GLORY!
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