This morning I felt lead to read from the Letter of James. It is interesting that he is addressing the 12 tribes that are scattered among the nations. In other words, he is writing to the Jewish believers, those whose background was the Covenant of the Law. Like the Letter to the Hebrews, the background of His audience has a very different background than the believers that Paul was generally writing too, those previously considered gentiles. Sometimes it is good to be mindful of the audience when reading the letter.
The verses I am meditating on this morning are from James 1:2-8, 12 NIV:
[2] "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, [3] because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. [4] Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. [5] If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. [6] But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. [7] That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. [8] Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do."
[12] "Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him."
These verses are an interesting mix of encouragement and direction. James starts out by directing people to adopt an attitude and perspective when they are confronted by trials, namely that they rejoice in them, or as he says "consider it pure joy". This is perhaps one of the hardest things to do when confronted with trials, changing one's perspective. He is saying that we should take on a Heavenly mindset when confronted with trials. The heavenly mindset allows us to see things from God's perspective, and everything from Him is Good! I love the following quote from St. Alphonsus de Ligouri,, he said: "All things in our life are either for God's greater glory or our own greater sanctification." This is a great example of choosing a heavenly mindset.
If we look at out situation from God's perspective, we will see His provision, His love and His mercy. When we look to Him, our focus on our trials and problems becomes much less. God is good all the time, and when we look at our situation from His perspective, we start to see His goodness towards us. If we embrace trials as things that will cause us to grow in love and faith, which should be our goal in life, than we can welcome them with pure joy.
James continues on with that thought, directing people to take on the attitude that testing produces perseverance, which results in maturity and completeness. That is such an interesting concept. If I say it another way, we aren't mature nor complete until we have experienced and overcome trials. There is something in this, namely perseverance, that we all need to become mature. A good analogy would be our drivers license, we don't receive our drivers license until we take and succeed at two tests, both a written test and an actual driving test. Having one's drivers license is in some ways a right of passage to becoming an adult, and trials which require perseverance fulfill the same role in our faith lives.
Another perspective is that as Christians we are called to be like Christ in all things, and perseverance during trials was one of the things that Jesus did, and thus we must do as well. His perseverance was rooted in His understanding of who His Father was and what He was like. Jesus understood that everything the Father directed Him to say and do was for our good, and the Father's greater Glory! He knew the Father intimately, knew His character, knew His enduring Love, His mighty Power and His ability to save. Jesus was fully confident in His Father's love, so He could endure everything. He persevered on the path set before Him, never losing hope or faith, nor His way. We are called to a similar maturity. We are called to Know the Father (and Jesus demonstrated exactly what the Father is like) and to be mature in our walk, believing and knowing the Father will deal with us exactly the same way He dealt with Jesus.
Another thought is that the Father must have great perseverance, as Jesus, during His time on earth, was an exact representation of the Father (Heb 1:3). Thus, Jesus is really just reflecting the Father in every way, and perseverance is one of the character traits He was reflecting. The Father demonstrates incredible perseverance in all of our lives. Graham Cooke says it this way, "whether we do well or badly, the Lord is consistent in His heart towards us." In other words, He perseveres in His love through all of our ups and downs, our faithfulness and our sin, our victories and our defeats, the Father never changes His heart towards us!
James continues on with another character trait that some might need to become mature, namely wisdom. He said all we need to do was ask the Father for this, and He would give it to us. He said we must ask with no doubt, in other words, we need to believe in the Father, in His goodness and character just like Jesus did. James cautions us against double-mindedness, and what that basically means is thinking two things about God at the same time an example would be - 'that God is Good, and that He hates me and is punishing me'. He can't do both, for God is eternally consistent. Being double-minded towards God means that we really haven't matured in our faith and in our understanding of God. I keep going back to the words of A.W.Tozer - "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." We must learn who God is and allow Him to show us His character, so that we can think correctly about God, and not be double-minded.
Finally, James comes back to perseverance, and gives one final encouragement to the reader to persevere, so that they might receive the crown of life, given by the Lord to those that Love Him. It is interesting that here James basically equates love with perseverance, that one proves the other, that perseverance proves the Love. If we want an example of that we need only look at marriage. Marriage is an outworking of our relationship, which is based on love. However it is only those who persevere in marriage who are able to prove their love. The traditional marriage vows say that the individuals will be true (persevere) in sickness and in health, whether wealthy or poor, in good times or bad. That is a great example of perseverance. James says that those of us who do persevere will receive the "Crown of Life". Some of the commentators that I read talk about the crown signifying a Kingdom, our relation to the King, our eternal inheritance. I like all of that - but mostly I just want the Lord.
I have heard some people preach about attaining positions in the new millennium, the 1000 year reign described in Revelations. They have identified all the things needed to become one of the favorites of the Lord, and have plans on being one who gains the right to rule over cities through their faithfulness to God. Me, I might be wrong, but I figure when I make it to heaven, I will be too engrossed in the Lord to care about ruling over cities! I just want to know the Lord, to Love Him and be loved by Him, to marvel at His ever-increasing Kingdom and Glory!
So today, I am encouraged to persevere in my love for the Lord, my faith in the Lord and my reliance in the Lord, regardless of the trials I encounter. I find that in life, if I encounter a trail in my life, as a married man I can either try to tough it out on my own, or I can turn to my sweetheart and walk through the trial together. If I choose the latter option, I find that my relationship with her deepens and becomes stronger. That is what we are being encouraged to do in our relationship with God! Walk through the trials with Him and let Him show you His love and faithfulness! He isn't punishing us, He is giving us an opportunity to grow in love and intimacy!
Amen!
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