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…
BE BLESSED!!!
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