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Christian Devotional – November 21, 2015
Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:9–Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. TRUTH: This sounds so contrary to what we typically hear people say. In this case, with the context of the verses before it, we need to get rid of the sin in our life. Often, we become prideful and find joy and laughter at the expense of others. We begin to feel that we are improving if we are stepping on others. Instead of feeling built up by this, we should be grieved by how we are treating others. As we seek to come and draw near to God, these…
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Christian Devotional – November 20, 2015
Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:8–Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded. TRUTH: As we come into a relationship and fellowship with God, He will come near to us. How do we draw near to Him? That is answered in the remaining part of the verse. First, we need to examine our actions (wash our hands) and ask for forgiveness for those actions that do not line up with God. Second, we must purify our attitudes (our hearts). The motivations for why we do what we do is just as important to God as…
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Christian Devotional – November 19, 2015
Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:7–Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. TRUTH: Submit and resist: two things that are very hard for us to do. We don’t want to think about submitting ourselves to anyone or anything, and yet if we are honest, we know that god knows more than we do and is in control when we aren’t. We are in much better hands if we will submit to Him and His will for us. Resisting the devil can also be very difficult when he tempts us with all the things that we think will bring us happiness because we…
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Christian Devotional – November 18, 2015
Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:5–But he gives us more grace. That is why scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” TRUTH: Humility and grace go hand in hand. As we show humility before God and recognize His position in relationship our own position, God will give us the grace that we need to be able to move forward and handle the situations that He allows us to go through. As we are seeking His glory, not our own, God will allow us to share in His glory. If we spend our time seeking our own glory, then God will oppose us as He…
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Christian Devotional – November 17, 2015
Before we jump into our devotional today, I just want you to be aware that something new and exciting is coming! More information will be available next week, but I wanted everyone here to be the first to know. Stay tuned!!! Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:5–Or, do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? TRUTH: James is asking a question of his readers. Basically, he’s asking, “Do you think God is a liar?” You see, scripture indicates that God is a jealous God who longs for His own people and desires to have our love…
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Christian Devotional – November 16, 2015
Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:4–You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. TRUTH: No matter what we think or what we try to tell ourselves, it really is one or the other. We cannot have love for both the world and for God. We are either for one or for the other. So many people try to walk a line of loving God and following Him, but still flirting with the world and trying to love those things as well. It’s simply not possible. They…
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Christian Devotional – November 15, 2015
Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:3–When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. TRUTH: Yesterday we were talking about how our desires can lead to quarreling and fighting. Today, it’s a reminder about our motives for asking. When we come to God and ask for things, why do we want them? Here James indicates that the people have not been receiving what they’ve asked God for because they are asking for things selfishly, only wanting them so they can spend it on their own pleasures. Are we only focused on ourselves or are we…
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Christian Devotional – November 14, 2015
Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:2–You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. TRUTH: James just finished talking about the fact that our quarrels and fights come from our desires that battle within us, now he says that the way these desires lead to that is because we get angry when we don’t get what we want. We set our mind on the fact that we deserve something or are entitled to something and if we don’t get it, we get mad and start…
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Christian Devotional – November 13, 2015
Read James chapter 4 VERSE: James 4:1–What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? TRUTH: When we are all following God’s desires, we will all have unity. However, when we break away and start to look after our own personal desires, we start to see the fighting and the quarreling among people. As our personal desires battle against our desire to please God, we will feel the battle within us and it will come out as fighting and quarreling with ourselves and each other. Are we at peace with others? If not, we need to go back and review if we…
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Christian Devotional – November 12, 2015
Read James chapter 3 VERSE: James 3:18–Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. TRUTH: There is a difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper. Peacekeepers are typically willing to do anything or say anything just to avoid a conflict or a confrontation. They will compromise their beliefs in order to maintain the status quo in a situation. On the other hand, a peacemaker is someone who is actively looking for ways to bring peace to situations of chaos. They find ways to bring in the Prince of Peace to situations knowing that without Him there can’t be true peace. Peacemakers are the ones who will reap the…