Trials and Temptations

James 1 1-8 (message)

I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello! Faith Under Pressure
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

Yesterdays sermon gave me some great hope. It produced a longing inside me to truly seek after my feelings and thoughts about how I trust the God I serve and the truth i long to live in. What really stirred inside me was "Fear makes you unstable" and if I'm unstable it has repercussions on those around me that I lead "my family". I have to have faith that is rooted in the scriptures and not on my feelings. I have to believe everything in the bible just as if I were blessed enough to help someone who doesn't know God to trust the scriptures.

Getting older as a disciple of Jesus it becomes easier to assume that things will go easy for me and that life's challenges wont be that bad because I try diligently to hold to the teachings. But God sees everything, even the junk that I can't and EXPOSES them in various ways. I love God and the Bible and all my faithful brothers and sisters. I am asking for your help and for you love in these moments. Pray for my family and I to hold on to Gods promises and for us to have humility and see how God protects us while we are being REFINED!

~Talk to me~