He calls us to make a new list: all the good things we do have.
James urges us to flip the typical human script. God is the Giver of Good Gifts and Rightful Longings We struggle to find our own satisfaction. "If God won't provide them," we think, "we'll have to go and get them for ourselves." We attempt to take control. We begin to look elsewhere for the good things we think we're missing. This attitude leads to even more temptation. If God were good, wouldn't we have those things? We start to make lists of all the things we think we are missing in our lives, of all of the things we have lost. In the midst of our trials, we may be tempted to change our opinion of the trustworthiness of our God. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. If for example, if we feel that we have been wrongly mistreated, our sense of entitlement may cause us to "give birth to sin" because of a corrupt longing for recognition. if we blame Him for our circumstances or to react in a way that is not godly. Emotions and sinful thinking can trick us into turning away from God. Our feelings often follow the lead of our perspective.
God provides only good gifts.Įmotions are powerful things, but they are not outside of our control. Swim toward God. God would never tempt us in this way. Sometimes the longings within us feed our pride or wrong desires. Satan’s great strategy in temptation is to convince us that the pursuit of our corrupt desires will somehow produce life and goodness for us. And yet, as both James and the rest of the New Testament make plain, we will never attain that kind of perfection on this side of heaven (1 John 1:10 Romans 7:21–25). This is a noble goal to aspire to, much like an athlete who aspires to never miss a shot on goal. We will have "bridled"-or learned to keep in check-our entire body.
Once we learn to perfectly control our words, we will be in perfect control of every part of ourselves. They will only and ever say words motivated by faith in God and love for each other. Such a perfected believer will never say anything unkind, hurtful, selfish, proud, rude, or manipulative. The sign of a Christian who has arrived at full-faith perfection is one who never stumbles in what they say or how they say it. We're not there yet, especially when it comes to our words. However, James also reveals that our goal is to stop stumbling, to be in full control of ourselves at all times. One struggle of the Christian life is our awareness of the many ways we continue to stumble. And yet, James is fully aware that fallible human beings will never do so without stumbling. G enuine Christians will participate in genuine good works in obedience to God.
It is clear - we all stumble in many ways.
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