Living by what we say is a core value in life as it is significant for trust and growth in both personal and professional life. When our actions matches our words, people trust us and the cost of not keeping words is expensive. In normal situations most of us try to keep our words. What about when you are pushed to the limits? Do you keep your words? Does it really matter to keep words in such times?
Do we prefer to be a friend or an enemy of God? We all prefer to be a friend of God even though the reality may be different. It is obviously a better place to be as friend of God. We have his love, protection, provision, grace etc., Think about an enemy of God. God is all powerful and sovereign over all his enemies. We have read and understood the hopelessness if anyone stands against God. How anyone becomes an enemy of God? James warns about this as one of the result when we love our desires and it is a shocking truth.
We see fights and disputes part of everyday life. We read in news, see in families and across nations. Sometimes it gets out of control and people go to extremes. When we see the motive behind these conflicts, selfish desire is the most common factor. Everyone has their own agenda to follow and we get frustrated when we don’t get what we need resulting in fights and disputes. Let us see what James tells us the reason behind it and the way out of it.
Our words have significant and lasting impact on others. It has the power to break or make a person. We have been blessed and also scarred for years by words spoken into our life. Even though we realize this, sometimes, we are the one who hurt others. This impact gets multiplied when we are in a position where many listen to our words. We are the teachers and leaders in our family, in our offices, in small groups, in churches and so on. Do we realize the impact it can create in others life? do we speak words building up others? or are we trying to take back words after it is too late? How successful are we in controlling the words in our life?
How do we know if we really believe on something? We act on that belief. One of the common problems we face in our everyday walk as a follower of Christ is failing to act on what we believe. Most of us will strongly claim that we believe in bible and have faith in Jesus. What do our actions tells us? Are we responding obediently to the word of God? or Are we filling empty words instead of actions? Is our faith alive or dead? James asks us to examine the state of our faith.
Have you been partial to others? Many of us are guilty of being partial in our life when we tend to selectively talk and give importance to few who are like us and who we like among other fellow brothers and sisters. Most of the times the criteria we use is based on social, economic and other outward standards. Does this sound like we are being partial towards others? The fact is in today’s world, we have become insensitive to realize that this is partiality. What is the problem with this? Think about it, If God is partial in his love towards us? what will be our condition based on the standards of God? Thank God for he is impartial. James tells us about the dangers of being partial towards others and how we can be free from this condition.
We may have tried everything to become strong to overcome temptations in life. But most of the time, our will power meets its match while facing temptations and yet again, we fall to our weaknesses in life. How can we overcome temptations? Let us see what James tells us about living a victorious life overcoming temptations.
Time and again, we find ourselves tossing and turning like a wave in strong winds to find peace and understanding in middle of the problems in our life. Lot of questions come to us. Why me? Why again? What am i going to do? Do i have hope? We become unstable in such situations when trying on our own. James tells us how can we handle such situations in our life.