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Overwhelming Burdens - Part 2
- CEV James 1:9 Any of God's people who are poor should be glad that he thinks so highly of them.
Many times a poor man has only faith to live by. This has been exercised in this mans life to a degree that he is happy and content with his faith. Not always content with his situation but extremely content with his faith and it is his faith that will help see him through the hardest of times.
- CEV James 1:10 But any who are rich should be glad when God makes them humble. Rich people will disappear like wild flowers
- CEV James 1:11 scorched by the burning heat of the sun. The flowers lose their blossoms, and their beauty is destroyed. That is how the rich will disappear, as they go about their business.
After the stock market fell during the great depression, many people lost everything. Many jumped from high rise windows to their death. They felt it better to live no more than to live by faith. In many ways a rich man will have his faith tested in ways that only a rich man can be tested. A rich man can be lost without the loss of life. Just as the verse above talks about the flowers losing their blossoms, so too will the rich man lose his wealth. Naked we come into this world and naked is how we will leave with only your faith intact. At this point you will have to stand on your record.
- CEV James 1:12 God will bless you, if you don't give up when your faith is being tested. He will reward you with a glorious life, just as he rewards everyone who loves him.
It is so important for us to keep our mind on what is important. Just as a poor man has to live by faith, so does the rich man. His wealth will not buy him happiness or salvation and in the end, everyone is equal. It's just so easy to forget what is important if we have wealth. We wouldn't feel the same need to practice our faith.
The glorious life mentioned in James 1:12 is not necessarily a life of financial wealth. Even the poorest of men have an abundance in non-financial wealth.
- CEV James 1:13 Don't blame God when you are tempted! God cannot be tempted by evil, and he doesn't use evil to tempt others.
For a long time I was angry at God, mad at the way things had turned out, even after He had taken me under His wing. Angry that He allowed such things to happen to me, especially by people claiming to be His.
Someone once said that if you were walking along with your child at your side and something happened and the child was hurt, you didn't allow that child to be hurt. You will comfort and soothe the child, cry when he hurts and rejoice when he is well. That is how God is. So many people have a pre-conceived notion that having God in your life protects you from bad things ever happening. Jesus Christ (and many others) were hung on a cross until death. Bad things happen to people in this world. God will help us when they do. It is all up to us to accept this help from God when needed.
God didn't do these things to me. If not for God some of these things would have been much worse than they were.
- CEV James 1:14 We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us.
Every single man will be tested. The rich, the poor, the good, the bad and the ugly, all will be tested. This isn't judgment we are talking about. These are tests that we will face in this life, tests that we have already faced and tests we are currently facing.
There is an old saying, do not peer at the keyhole lest you be vexed.
A keyhole in itself isn't the problem. The sight of a keyhole isn't the problem. It is looking at the keyhole and wondering what is on the other side that is the problem. Things like this can grab a hold and once the imagination takes over, things degrade quickly.
A married man looking at a pretty lady isn't a problem. It is when this man allows his morals to decay and let's his mind wander and consider, what if.
Perhaps someone considering taking something that doesn't belong to them when nobody else is around. It is when we consider such things that it becomes a problem, even the small things.
To stay in the right way we need to keep our mind on things that are spiritual. Never let our mind retreat to those things. Keeping our minds on things of the Spirit does take practice but once it becomes like a habit, it is easy and so many more blessings are realized.
- CEV James 1:15 Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead.
Once it starts it spirals downhill. Once we have decided to compromise our morals, even in our mind, the morals degrade fast. From one wrong thought then another and another and as James tells us, these thoughts and desires give birth to sin, it makes sin apparent in your life, it traps us. Thoughts will make that sin alive in you.
When we do something wrong it usually effects someone else. Sometimes when others do things wrong it effects us. Just as it is a test for someone to avoid those thoughts of evil desires, it is also a test of how we deal with things when we fail or when others fail, especially when their failure has an effect on us.
We got to where we are today from just 1 original problem. It was mans desire to know good and evil that drove the event of eating the forbidden fruit and allowing death to become a part of life. And it has all spiraled downhill from there. It will do that in our own individual personal life.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had but 1 rule to follow, do not eat of the tree of knowledge. Their desire to be as God and know good from evil became too much to bare so they fell. They were tempted by their own desires. The devil was also involved but it was them that sinned and it was them that had to pay the price. Don't forget, satan had already been kicked out of Heaven because of his own selfish desires and has nothing more to lose.
It isn't God that makes us sin but God can sure help us stop a lot of our sin. It is amazing how when a person is really serious about making their life right and turn it all over to God, just how He can keep our mind off of those things that used to hang out in our heads.
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