Daily Devotional • June 22
A Reading from James 1:1-18
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the dispersion:
Greetings.
2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance complete its work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.7,8 For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
9 Let the brother or sister of humble means boast in having a high position 10 and the rich in having been humbled, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13 No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14 But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15 then, when desire has conceived, it engenders sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Meditation
The beginning of the letter of James hammers down bluntly on the variety of trials that the faithful can go through, and usually do: insufficient wisdom, doubts, instability, being lured and enticed by wrong desires, and the threat of deception. And yet, this sobering list is firmly embedded in godly generosity, the promise of the crown of life, good and perfect gifts, dependable light through all shadows, and the promise of being first fruits of God’s creatures.
God does not tempt anyone, but he does allow people to be tested—that is, to go through the challenges that exist in a sin-shaped and twisted world. The promise is that in all of these real-life challenges, God’s real-life love surrounds us and encourages steadfastness, necessary on the road to perfection. Jesus taught, “Whoever endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). But the testing is not a written exam at the end of an academic class in theology; the test is real life.
There are three primary reasons that unbelievers give for not believing in God: Science has all the answers; many Christians are a bunch of jerks in spite of their so-called faith; if God is all-good and all-powerful, why do innocent people suffer? All of them have been well-answered, but it’s the third that is toughest.
Today’s lesson provides one of those answers. And it is something that just about everyone knows and agrees with: e.g., to be good at football, you have to work very hard and get bruised a lot; there are lots of examples. We all get it. But that’s still academic. Where is God if your child is hit by a car or your spouse gets terminal cancer? Academic answers won’t comfort much, if at all—but love can, and will, and does. Human love, sure, but divine love for those who persevere is ever-dependable.
David Baumann is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories. In his ministry as an Episcopal priest, he served congregations in Illinois and California.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Church of the Incarnation, Dallas
Igreja Anglicana de Mocambique e Angola
