PERSEVERANCE, WISDOM & STATUS…

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.

WHO IS JAMES? A SERVANT

A SERVANT HEART CAN ONLY COME FROM BEING FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

PERSEVERANCE

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 TM: So we’re not giving up. How could we 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 TM: So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the

lavish celebration prepared for us lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

NLT VERSION: 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever

“WE MUST NOT GROW WEARY OF DOING LITTLE THINGS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHO LOOKS NOT ON THE GREAT SIZE OF THE WORK, BUT ON THE LOVE OF IT.” ~ BROTHER LAWRENCE

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you 5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.

Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

“GOD DOES NOT ALLOW A SOUL THAT HE WISHES TO BE ENTIRELY HIS TO HAVE ANY OTHER CONSOLATION THAN HIMSELF”.

GOD GIVES HIS WISDOM IN ALL DECISIONS GENEROUSLY!

THERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT ASKING FOR WISDOM. BELIEVE & DO NOT DOUBT “VS. 6: BE SURE THAT YOUR FAITH IS IN GOD ALONE”

“DOUBLE-MINDED” MEANS LITERALLY IN THE GREEK, “TWO-SOULED”

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

9 Believers who are[b] poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. 10 And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. 11 The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.

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