The Daily Devo with Steve

As I read today’s verses and we get into this discussion, I want reiterate that we are talking here about growth, and we are talking about accountability to ourselves, not to others.  The reading today isn’t something to be taken in the context of a church using this an excuse to judge its people, and their merits as Christians, or whether or not someone is ‘really saved’...this is about examining ourselves, asking if we really are leaning into God’s teaching, and growing individually.  Salvation isn’t earned in doing as James is teaching; James is just trying to provide some motivation to us.  So here is today’s text and then we’ll talk about it: (James 1:22-27).

Reading this, I kind of see 3 ideas jumping out, 3 thoughts.  I will tackle one today, and then we’ll keep with this line of thought and these verse and dig into the second and third tomorrow.

The first is in verses 22-25, that we are to be doers of the Word...meaning, we are to be changed, we are to be challenged, and we are to grow as we adopt God’s teaching.  When was the last time you were challenged by God’s word?  Or, how about this...when was the last time you were inconvenienced by it?  When was a time when you wanted to do x, but you had that moment of pause, and you felt a kind of nudge and knew you should do y, and you really didn’t want to and you really didn’t want to, to the point of just thinking, “Crap, okay God, I hear you...”, and you did y?  When was the last time that happened to you?  That should be something that happens not all that seldom if you are growing.  I can recall an incident from last week, but that is really only because I had committed through these journal entries to follow where God leads me in trying to serve others, which was cool, but that should be something that is welcomed, is frequent, and it a reminder that God is with us and is guiding us.  When was the last time your faith inconvenienced you or put you in a position where you had to make a decision you didn’t really want simply because of what you profess to believe.  That’s a great metric to track over time.  That is the essence of growth.

For today and tomorrow, I want to really challenge myself on this idea of being a doer of the Word and not just a hearer.  A step in that direction is a prayer I heard someone teach once, and it simply goes like this: “God, help me to want what you want, and to recognize when I don’t, that I may see an opportunity to be more like you.”   That is it - very simple.  In reality, this should be a part of every daily prayer.  I am going to be praying that and hoping for that today.  And that will get me ready for a really direct application that we will see tomorrow.

Another short section today...I told you, this text is just loaded with stuff we can talk about!  Here are today’s verses:

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

In reading this, the theme of this text seems to be anger, or pushing against having anger in your heart.  It is almost like James is telling us that anger and love can’t coexist in a person’s heart; where there is anger there is a struggle to love.

Why quick to hear; why does James start there?  I have to put things into the text that aren’t there, but I can speculate.  Let’s assume that most people are decent people, and most people are reasonable.  Then, most people act the way they act because of what they have seen and heard, just as is the case for me.  Then, it is a good starting point to assume that if I saw and heard and experienced everything they have, I might come to a similar conclusion, a similar opinion, or a similar place.  This idea of assuming the best in people is central to having a loving, understanding, compassionate, heart...and it all starts with listening.  It is predicated on the fact that we understand another person’s viewpoint.  Perhaps James is leaning into this truth...that understanding starts with listening, and that anger is born out of a lack of understanding more times than not.  Quick to listen, slow to speak...meaning, listen until we think we understand, then listen some more, the a little more; and all of that before I ever wade into the conversation with MY opinion.  Because, as he goes on to say, anger can’t be in the heart of someone who is producing righteousness...meaning, we can love our neighbor, we can’t come along side him, if we are harboring anger.

So, how do we do this?  How do we lower our guard, listen, and appreciate what another person is saying instead of becoming angry?  We humble ourselves to receive God’s word...which is to say, we humble ourselves, we become ‘meek’ to use James’ word in this verse, and we let God work on us.  We have been talking about leaning into God’s promises, and this is a great example of that...we are to love our neighbor and ask God to fill our hearts with love.  You see the order there?  We are to DO, then we will feel like it.  In fact, tomorrow’s verses start right there, by commanding us to be DOERS of the word.  Sometimes we have to act ourselves into feeling.

So, today I am reminded that anger is an enemy I must combat.  Listening is the key to that.  This week, I am going to subject myself to a challenge, and that is to be conscious to ask one follow-up question whenever possible and appropriate, to seek just a bit more confirmation in conversations that I understand, before I speak.  Before I offer an opinion or a thought, I must ask one more question or must restate what the other person is saying, in my own words, and confirm that I have it right.  This is a great relationship and conversational tool, but it is also a way to engrain a habit of being quick to hear and slow to speak as James commands here in his letter this morning.

The first couple of verses today turn away from the ideas preceding, talking about the rich man and how his riches are fleeting, and then James gets back to addressing this idea of ‘good suffering’, or enduring through faith in the face of trials.  Perhaps James was eluding to the idea that some people think that having money means you don’t have trials, I don’t know...but he definitely is stressing that we should stay faithful during trying times.  I think these verses are really poetic, so I am going to read them real quickly (v12-18).

I love that James uses that word promised; as we discussed yesterday, God doesn’t really give many real ‘promises’; this is one though.  James would say that God has promised to meet us in our time of need if we remain faithful.  He will redeem our struggle, or use it in some way that is for good.  That’s a promise.  And James stresses something we talked about yesterday, that struggle and evil are not from God, but from that only good comes from Him.  WE are the reason for sin, God is the reason for goodness, the the rescuer.  This is an important concept to really understand, that sin is a result of our decisions, and of decisions of others past, not God’s desire.   God didn’t put evil in the world to mess with us.  Evil is the result of our using our free will in a way it wasn’t intended...to be our own god.  When we rebelled God in the Garden of Eden, God judged that sin; which is what every good parent would do, judge a wrong doing.  But God has been going about rescuing us from ourselves ever since.   It is a beautiful story, and it seems odd and it sounds a little weird until you really spend time thinking about it...it makes sense.

For today though, the takeaway for me kind of falls in line with yesterday a little, but it is just recognizing how blessed I really am, and in so many ways that I don’t even realize.  I have to leverage that when I struggle, and remember that, and hold to the fact that God has promised to use my struggles for good if I can remain faithful.  That’s a promise I can test, and that’s also a promise that, looking back, I can honestly say He has always kept.

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.

This letter or manuscript from the New Testament is pretty well accepted as being written by James, the brother (or half-brother) of Jesus.  Interestingly, the name James is really a little bit of a stretch as his name in Greek is Iakōbos, or in Hebrew Ya’akov, or more appropriately Jacob...our name James is apparently of more of an Italian version of the name.

Jacob, or James, was the first leader of the first church - the church there in Jerusalem as the disciples went out to begin spreading the gospel after Jesus’ death.  This church went through some hard times in the roughly 20 years after his death and as much of what we know from Acts was taking place...there was a famine and there was rampant poverty and persecution of the church.  But James was known as a true pillar in the church.  His writing is loaded with references to Proverbs and Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount...and that brings me to the main idea I want to focus on for a moment; think about this...we are reading a letter from a guy who is teaching us based on Proverbs and from the Sermon on the Mount, from a guy who literally grew up with Jesus.  This letter was likely penned in the mid-40s, 12-15 years after Jesus’ death, and probably before many (or all) of Paul’s letters.  This is as probably as close as we can get to Jesus.

So, here is the question...what would your brother/sister have to do in order to convince you that he/she is the Son/Daughter of God?  Think about that, seriously, for second.  I heard this question posed by a pastor named Andy Stanley years ago and have thought about it often since.  This is a big question.  James is perhaps one of the best pieces of evidence as to the identity of Jesus.  Think about all of those moments growing up where your sibling does something to pick at you, or to annoy you, or to set you up for something you didn’t do...think about all the little moments of weakness and vulnerability, when you got in trouble and your sibling got to see you being punished...in all of that, after all of that, and after years of living in close proximity to Jesus, James is convinced that He is actually God’s Son...the Messiah.  James is either certifiably insane or he is just who he says he is...and it seems most likely to me that the latter is true rather than the former.

In terms of the letter, it is really more of a collection of wisdom thoughts and ideas organized around an introductory section.  We have these marked as ‘chapters’, with 2-5 being the broader sections of ideas and with chapter 1 setting things up.  There is a lot of density to this book - there are few wasted words.  So, even though it is just 5 chapters, it will take a bit to work through it if we are going to allow passages to work on us and to challenge us.

Today, I pray that God would continue to show me opportunities to love those around me, and in a similar fashion, I pray that He would begin to open me up to challenge and to self-exploration...James is sure to lead us in that direction and I don’t want my pride and my own agenda to get in the way of that!

So, I hinted at possibly doing this, and so it is...I am going to read James next, instead of John.  James will be in keeping with a lot of the wisdom stuff that has been challenging me lately, so I want to lean into that a little.  I feel like God is nudging me in the direction of some applied wisdom in my life. So, today I will read through James, and then tomorrow do a little background reading, then we’ll start the chapter-by-chapter reading; which will probably be cut up into much smaller pieces because of the richness of this content.  We will take that as we go though.  For today though, the read-through.

For me, in reading these 5 chapters of James, which really read a lot more like Proverbs than the Gospels, I had one big thought that came to mind that I think is SO important, and I that I can’t recall really landing on before - it is the idea that James is really written to the individual, not the church.  And, here is what I mean by that...I have often heard the question asked, “Is a person really saved if they don’t act, at least in some ways, like a Christian is supposed to act...like as we are taught in the NT?”  And here is the deal...I think James would tell us that the way YOU act is your business, it is between you and God; I have no need to enter into that discussion.  My faith, in the same way, is my own journey.  I think James is writing to us INDIVIDUALLY to encourage us, to challenge us, to push us, and to guide us...but I think his writing is to be used by ME for ME and as a mirror, not as a whip.  James’ words aren’t intended for me to be used to whip you, or to beat you up about your faith...James is a mirror; it is meant for me to look at me, and you to look at you.  It is a personal book.

It is also important to note that James, to a large extent, isn’t discussing salvation in his letter, but he is focused on application...he is answering the question of how to live as a believer; in other words, doing everything James says isn’t a ticket to salvation, because we can’t ‘act’ our way into Heaven.  We have to trust our way there by faith in Christ, as Paul taught us.  It is important to remember that James was there in the Jerusalem Counsel when Paul came to push for lowering the bars on ‘getting into the church’, and James was the outspoken person who said that we should place anything in the way of the person coming to faith so as not to hinder them.  James is a fervent believer in salvation by faith, but he is also one who appears to have a real passion for challenging us to hold ourselves accountable to our faith, and to what we say we believe.

So, as we read James, we are going to be challenged.  We are going to feel, at times, like we are getting kicked in the teeth.  It is important to remember that salvation is settled for us (assuming you are listening are saved by faith), this is about getting better, and it about looking at ourselves, individually, and using James’ writing as a mirror to create moments of confession where we express openly to God where we’ve fallen short, and where we can trust God will meet us and renew us and prepare us to move forward and to grow.  That’s the best use of this writing in my opinion.

Following on yesterday’s thoughts, I am hovering on this idea of leaning into wisdom a little.  It actually makes me think that the next place I may go is actually James, before getting over to John.  James is so pointed and direct, it mixes well with this theme of leaning into wisdom, which is something I am really getting a lot out of at the moment.

This first Psalm is short and is really, really solid,  I am going to read the entire thing here:

1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

It is this ‘on his law he meditates day and night’ phrase that I am really focusing; this is something I have been trying to do more of lately.  It isn’t as much that I have been memorizing scripture, which is something I should focus on doing more, but that I am trying to have more little moments with God throughout the day, recognizing him in small blessings, or asking for guidance in even the small decisions, or just thanking him more often.  These little moments set the broader tone for me - small moments lead to bigger recognition of what’s going on.  As I have been working on recognizing the needs of those around me these last few days, and leaning in to try and meet those needs better, I have found that these moments of recognition of God’s presence really give me some momentum...it is almost like getting a nudge and a small snippet of encouragement along the way.  Meditating on God’s law and God’s presence and plan in little moments really helps me to maintain perspective of what all of this is about anyways.

So, today, I will continue on this path towards meeting the needs of those around me, concerning myself with understanding those needs, and going to God continually throughout the day to remind me that He is there, He cares, and He is behind me on this journey.  I will remember that living in wisdom is really the only good choice...and that wisdom is hard in the short term, but much easier in the long-run.

Today, reading through this, I had a little bit different thought that came to mind...instead of keying in on a particular verse, I got to thinking about the chapter as a whole, and it prompted this question for me, “Where in my life am I ignoring wisdom currently?”  In other words, I am essentially asking about where I might have a blindspot.  This chapter is littered with fantastic little one-liner ideas and verses, and I could go on for days picking one out at a time, but this bigger idea is really what has me thinking...where am I ignoring wisdom?

It is true that sometimes people get lucky and end up with all of the right things happening without doing the work for prepare for those...actually, there is a verse in here about that.  But, people do win the lottery in life.  However, it isn’t reasonable, or wise, to make that my PLAN.  Meaning, I have to get myself headed in the right direction if I want to give myself the best chance of succeeding in ANY area of my life...the wisdom literature clearly teaches that incrementalism is the path forward.

For me, in thinking through the journaling I have been doing over the last couple of days, coming out of Romans and thinking about the needs of those around me, and in thinking about this idea of incrementalism applied to the relationships with those closest to me, I know the spot where God would have me go to work...in those relationships.  I feel a nudge to really lean in here.  I have been stressed with work, I have been recovering from years of knee issues that kept me from exercising and I felt like I was being strangled not being able to do anything athletically, and I have been frustrated by the challenges of raising 2 children in a blended family, one from a prior marriage and one from my current.  In the midst of all of that, I have pulled away, and I am tended toward keeping more to myself.  It is my safe place, and it is where I find peace and...wait for it, control.

So this morning, I am reminded that the best path forward is always on the path of wisdom.  It doesn’t promise or guarantee success, but it DOES align with God’s will for my life, it WILL be the most JOY-filled path, and as I think about this for me, it is asking me to open up and to be wise with my attention.  So, I will be praying for clarity on how to do this, for moments in my life to recognize and lean into this calling to really enrich these relationships with those closest relationships; for the courage to say the things that come to mind, and to act upon those little impulses for action that God places on me.  That’s my calling today.

Well, we are here...we have finished Romans.  This last chapter is a lot of greetings and fair-wells, except that Paul provides one more encouragement to avoid the divisive talk that stands as a great reminder for us as well today. He states that the root of this divisive of teaching is really self edification rather than that of God. And I think that prompts a great diagnostic question to keep in mind, a question of whether or not what I doing is for my own benefit or for the greater purposes of God.

Romans is a little tougher to read than a lot of New Testament manuscripts...it is a little weightier, meatier, ...deep.  But, I think we’ve made our way through it catching the big ideas.  Paul started by guiding us through a lot of theological thoughts, explaining the gospel message, breaking down some common objections, addressing some common pitfalls in the church and that many of us face individually.  Then, as he often does, he turned to some practical application ideas in the back half of the letter.

The big impression I get from Romans is the interconnected nature of Jesus’ work and life and message with that of God’s entire plan...reading through here, I just get the sense that things really have been woven together amazingly well.  And, I love how Paul addresses common objections to faith, as I am one that loves a lot of the evangelical/apologetic type material anyways.  But, I think my biggest takeaway from Romans really comes back to what Paul is teaching in the last few chapters we read together, that pretty much all of the teaching and instruction could be summed up simply as - love God and love your neighbor.  That’s it.  It really is that simple...that isn’t EASY, but that certainly is SIMPLE to understand.  It is amazing how we can see this message repeated throughout the New Testament scriptures, by various authors, and in various forms...it is the common theme for sure.  This weekend, I am going to continue in that exercise I started yesterday, journaling about each family member and close friend, and asking what they are needing right now, and going about trying to be there for them...that is the essence of loving my neighbor.

The first seven verses of this chapter contain the last of what I would call teaching here in Romans. And, as is fitting, we see Paul’s instruction delivered under the ideal of loving our neighbor, putting their needs ahead of hours in the way we live our lives.  The reality is, loving our neighbor is simply being aware of their needs and orienting ourselves to serve those needs.

Just reading this helps me to realize, in retrospect, that I tend to be happiest when I am thinking about someone other than myself.  I get my deepest feelings of contentment when I am serving others. Ironically, when times get hard and in times of stress, I tend towards fending for myself and away from serving others. I don’t do the things I know I should do, and the downward spiral begins.  That is what Paul taught us back in chapter 7 as well; this is just sin working inside of me.

This morning, in thinking of how to apply this idea, an idea is simply to (similar to yesterday) be looking to understand the current needs of those around me.  I am going to take that a step further today though, I am going to actually take a few minutes to journal about what I think are the most pressing issues, the biggest concerns of those around me.   I will take time to think about them individually and directly.  Then, if I feel a nudge that I should actually reach out to them, or engage them in a discussion to hear from them and comfort them directly, then I will do that over the course of today and this weekend.  I will take action.  That’s my big idea for today.