Trials and Temptations (part 1)
Raise your hand if you've ever went through trials and temptations! I can tell you right now I am the first to raise my hand. And that was a rhetorical question because at some point or another we have all went through these trials and temptations.
Well here is a big shout out to James 1:1-7 for being all about trials and temptations!
So if you haven't caught on yet, today's lesson will be about trials and Temptations.
Verse 1: "(1) James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings."
As you can see here in verse 1 that James is a servant of God and obviously the author of this book. He seems to be talking to the twelve tribes among the nations.
Which interestingly enough according to Dr. David Jeremiah's study bible when he is talking about the twelve tribes he is referring to Jews scattered outside the land of Israel in Gentiles country.
Gentile: Someone who is not a Jew.
Verses 2-3: "(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."
Now these two verses are both highlighted in my bible except in different colors, and you can do the same if pleased. But the reason being is because as you can see in verse two it says you are suppose to consider your trials and temptations pure joy. Why might you ask? Well verse three, highlighted differently, is an explanation of why we should consider it a pure joy. It says that through our trials and temptations we produce perseverance.
Perseverance: Staying strong in what we are doing no matter the difficulty.
Now what I really love about the word produce in this sentence is that produce means to make from raw materials.
In other words Hey be joyous even through your trials and temptations because God is using this hardship to grow and shape you into a beautiful mature believer from where you were before. Not saying that before you were horrible, however we all need some growing and shaping in our life.
An example of this is in Hebrews 12:2.
Verse 4: "(4) Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
The way that I took this verse is when all of this comes and goes, we will come out more mature and more complete. Without trials and temptations Christians cannot develop maturity and wholeness.
Verse 5: "(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."
A good example of this would be in 3:17; 1 Kings 3:9.
In other words, If we ask God for wisdom he is going to provide it generously. The verse was pretty self explanatory.
Verse 6: "(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 into the wind."
Obviously continuing from verse 5 when we ask for wisdom the Lord will give it to us and He will put it to the test. which will be our trials and temptations. But don't ask for something from the Lord and then doubt it. In other words don't be double-minded because those kinds of people are constantly back and fourth kind of people/
Verse 7: "(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."
So far we've gathered that you ask and receive, don't doubt, and this is why.. We won't relieve anything from the Lord. We asked Him if he could give us this wisdom but then we go and doubt Him? How can we expect anything from Him?
It warns us that people who are like that are unstable not only in this but EVERYTHING that they do!
Anyways this is all that I will be covering today you guys. I hope that you guys have taken something away from today's lesson and that you all had a wonderful Holiday. If you guys have any prayer requests or have any questions than my email is servantofgod98@gmail.com and you can message me there and I will respond as soon as I can!
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