James 4
We are constantly in need and we lack so many things without God. Yet, many times our pride gets in the way of asking our closest friends for help…must less God who supplies all that we need! Often when we reach out for help it’s with the wrong heart and because we didn’t invite God in from the begging…and that’s what can get us in the worst of situations. Let’s dive into how James shows us to reach out to God in our plans from the beginning!
- HUMILITY
- This is the fruit of the Spirit and often one of the hardest to cultivate. In our inflated view of our self society (pride) it’s very hard to accurately have the right view of our self (humility). As a person who has struggled with a Pharisee heart I’ve learned there are 3 ways to see if I’m acted out of humility over pride:
- My Willingness to Listen
- Attitude towards Serving
- Responsiveness to being overlooked
- When I act out of humility I am acting in submission to what God has made me to be…submission is a daily choice (God gives us free will to make that choice). There is a story in Luke 18 about the prideful and humble going to pray and Jesus tells the prideful will be humbled and the humble will be exalted!
- This is the fruit of the Spirit and often one of the hardest to cultivate. In our inflated view of our self society (pride) it’s very hard to accurately have the right view of our self (humility). As a person who has struggled with a Pharisee heart I’ve learned there are 3 ways to see if I’m acted out of humility over pride:
- DEPENDENCE
- This takes us back all the way to the first sin in the Garden of Eden when we stepped out of the authority of God and into self-reliance. The lies the devil told us then still fight us today and our continual rely on self attitude is what the American Dream is about. The biggest misconception here is that we don’t have to plan anything when we have God…but that it’s true…we seek God’s will then we plan our steps in obedience. We have to understand we are totally dependent on Him in all we do but we aren’t lazy in trying to do it…we work with all that we’ve got! We have to trust that God knows the end from the beginning instead of thinking we are the beginning and He can figure out the end! That’s what doing right when we know what is right is all about (even when it is uncomfortable)!
Take Away:
How can we love people, love the truth, yet at the same time not be judgmental towards others?
Is there something specific that God is currently speaking to you about doing?
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Tyler West 