As I said yesterday, James’ letter is a little more disjointed than some of the other writings in the New Testament...it bounces around a little, like Proverbs.  We see that today...today I am going to focus on the first 7 verses of James.   So, here they are, and then I will make a few comments.

In reading this, I see 2 distinct ideas here.  The first is about enduring struggle, and see that in verses 2-4.  And we all know this...life is hard.  And it is hard because of sin...it is hard because WE sin, and because of sin in human history.  It isn’t hard because God makes it that way; but, James is reminding us that God, in his mercy, redeems the difficulties of life, and He can use them for good.  Looking at the subscripts that are referenced in these verse in my text, we can see these ideas echoed in Romans 5:3 and 1 Peter 1:6, and there are plenty of others.  In fact, there aren’t a lot of straight out promises from God, but one that is implied pretty heavily, and to which I can attest from my own journey with faith is that God will use our struggles, He will redeem our struggles, for some purpose of His, if we’ll remain faithful during those times.  It am awesome thing to see...and this is a reason that tracking prayers is so powerful; it helps us to capture our pain and our hurt and our struggles in-the-moment, so we can catalog them and remember them, because once God heals us and makes us whole, we have a tendency to forget them.  Tracking prayers is such a fantastic spiritual discipline.

And the second section is verses 5-7, where we see James talking about going to God for wisdom.  I can see this idea as being at least tangentially related to the first, perhaps he is suggesting that when we struggle we should endure but also go to God for wisdom...but I don’t see the two ideas neatly tied together, so I don’t know for sure if that’s what he is suggesting.  Either way though, I love this idea that we should lean into God and that we should do so with an expectation that God will answer our request.  This reminds me of the analogy of the three-legged stool, where you can picture yourself sitting on the stool; then think about one leg being removed, or of leaning up onto 2 of the 3 legs...that is how a lot of us live out our faith.  We keep one of our own legs on the ground as the third leg, maintaining control, maintaining our sense of autonomy, and thereby robbing God of what He truly wants, which is for us to sit back on all 3 legs, supported by Him alone.  That’s when faith soars and God really tends to want to move in our lives.  But we have to let go and let God...we have to take our foot off of the ground.  James is telling us here in these verses that God grants wisdom to He who asks, but He really responds only when we ask in expectation that He is going to answer; when we ask and we move forward assuming God’s going to show up.  It is asking God for the wisdom on how to talk about something with your spouse, a difficult topic that you sense in the moment needs to be brought out, tossing up that prayer in your mind really quickly, and then being courageous enough to start the discussion.  It is asking God for the strength to forgive a friend in a moment when you’ve been offended, and then opening your mouth and speaking that forgiveness while trusting God will soften your heart.  That’s faith in action; that’s picking your feet up off of the ground and leaving the results to God.  That’s what James is talking about.