Are we merely deluding ourselves.
Looking through the crystal glass.
Everything is going to be just fine.
If it was a decision made with our minds, we would just e-mail the message to the brain: be joyful in this trial. "Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials." James 1:2.
And the longer you live the more variety of trials just happen. And Matthew Henry says we should not pray so much for the removal of the affliction, as for wisdom to make a right use of it. Theologians today say the same thing. It appears to me my world is praying to get out of all the troubles, trials, tragedies. Who isn't? The key appears to be asking for wisdom to guide us in our own spirit and every facet of our business here on earth. Ask anything. We all deal with discouragement over these trials, if we are honest. God is not the author of our sin. We must deal with how we are handling what is sent our way.
"Afflictions, as sent by God, are designed to draw out our graces, but not our corruption." M. Henry. "So prove yourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves." James 1:22. If we heard Tim Keller preach every day of the week, do we look into the gospel glass, and walk away forgetting our own spots? Or does a hearer of the Gospel pour out into a doer of the Word? What changes us for the good. Far too many live in self-deceit. No greater moment than this present one to ask what is going on inside of my heart, right this minute. "Mere hearers are self-deceivers' and self-deceit will be found the worst deceit at last." M.Henry.
God gives greater grace. God gives grace to the humble. James 4:6.
PRAYER FROM PSALMS
Psalm 138:6 "Though the LORD is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar. Father, I don't want to live my life haughty, far away, distanced from You. Help us all to know this day what it means to humble ourselves before you by not deluding ourselves thinking that we are doing just fine---and we're really not.
This is what the Lord gave me this summer as I faced my daughter and her family moving to Dallas. She had always lived with me or near me and she turned 41 this year. We had even worked together in my husband's law firm. In a Sunday evening service with a guest preacher,....the verses in James 1:2-4 jumped out at me. It does not say IF you encounter various trials...it clearly says WHEN. And as Bev so aptly pointed out...they are very varied and come in all different size, shapes and forms and are different for each one of us. They are tailored for each one of us,He gives us what is meant just for us. For then did I not only apply the verses to my daughter leaving but then to the caring of my son's two boys. Very, very different kinds of trials. He has ministered to me through these verses and showed me how He is truly working ALL things to my good and is conforming me to His image. Though I go kicking and screaming at times, He is faithful. And truly self deceit is the worst deceit of all. We are truly blind to it. May He give each one of us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts to grasp what it is He wants us to know and do and be for the continuing of His kingdom.
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