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Christian Devotional – April 4, 2025
Go and Do, Day 4 “What you do is what you believe and everything else is a lie.” Read James 1:22-27. I still remember when my husband came home from a conference and told me that statement. He told me that the speakers had all been running behind and so by the time it got to one of the speakers, they didn’t have hardly any time left for him. My husband said the speaker calmly got up on stage, apologized for the lack of time, then said, “I really only have one thing to say to you anyway. What you do is what you believe and everything else is a…
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Christian Devotional – April 3, 2025
Go and Do, Day 3 What does your anger produce? Read James 1:19-21. Every emotion that we have produces something both in our own life and in the lives of others around us. When we are happy, we can produce happiness in others. When we are encouraging, we can produce joy in others. However, the Bible here says that when we are angry with human anger, one thing we do not produce in others is God’s righteousness. Sometimes it can be easy to feel that we have the right to be angry about something, and that when we act in that anger, we’re doing a good thing. After all, it…
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Christian Devotional – April 2, 2025
Go and Do, Day 2 We are responsible for our own temptation. Read James 1:9-18. When things are going badly and we’ve made bad choices, it becomes really easy to try to find something or someone to blame. Nobody wants to think about the fact that we are the cause of our own difficulties and struggles. However, sometimes we are. If our struggles are a result of our poor choices and sinful nature, then we have to accept the fact that it was our giving in to the temptations that led us to where we are today. We have to take ownership of the responsibility that we have. We are…
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Christian Devotional – April 1, 2025
Go and Do, Day 1 Just do it! Read James 1:1-8. James may be one of the most practical books in the Bible. If you are looking for a list of “do this, don’t do this,” to help you on your Christian walk, James is the place to start. As the brother of Jesus, James was near the Lord and saw him growing up, but did not fully believe in him until after Jesus’s resurrection. James understands what the practical needs are to ensure that people are going and doing everything that they need to be. The Christian life is about our love of Christ. But, how can we truly…
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Christian Devotional – May 4, 2023
James, Day 11 Share. Read James 5:13-20. As James closes out this book, we see his focus on ensuring that people are sharing the message. We must pray for others. We must share with others. We must deliver the message. In everything that we do, we are to be focused on sharing what God gives us to share and telling others what he has done in our lives. God does not do things in our lives for us to be silent about them. God does not reveal himself to us so that we can keep it to ourselves. God desires that we share with others what He is doing in…
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Christian Devotional – May 3, 2023
James, Day 10 Do we mean what we say? Read James 5:7-12. James is discussing patience here. Patience is what we need when things are not going the way we want them to go. The other piece of patience that is important to recognize, is that our words matter, especially when we are frustrated and need patience. As we are going through life, are we people of our word? Do we still say exactly what we intend to do? Our integrity must be such that when we say yes, people can count on that, and when we say no, it’s the same thing. Are we people of our word?
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Christian Devotional – May 2, 2023
James, Day 9 Is it wrong to be wealthy? No. Is it wrong to be poor? No. Read James 5:1-6. The quantity of money that an individual has or does not have is never what determines what is in or not sin when it comes to money. The issue is much more about how people use the money they have and why they want more money. In the United States, money is often seen as a means of power, and people who want power typically want more money to be able to exert more power over others. James is reminding the people here that often, the rich people in that…
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Christian Devotional – May 1, 2023
James, Day 8 Is planning a sin? Read James 4:13-17. God wants us to use the time that he has given us in the best way possible to glorify him. To do that, there will always be a balance between planning, faith, and God’s seemingly spontaneous but perfect timing. God is the ultimate planner and he is the one who knows exactly what is going to happen and when. We, on the other hand, often we’ll try to plan. However, do things go according to our plan? Sometimes we have to recognize that God has different plans, and we need to be flexible to move and flow with what he…
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Christian Devotional – April 30, 2023
James, Day 7 How do we understand and ask for what we want? Read James 4:1-12. So often, our prayers to God become a laundry list of things that we want. We come to God like we go to the grocery store with our list and expect to be able to pick up everything immediately. However, God is not a grocerystore or buffet line. Humility is the key. When we humble ourselves to God, our requests become in line with what God is asking for. We want what pleases him, not what pleases ourselves. Are we coming to God with humility and putting his desires above our own. His desires…
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Christian Devotional – April 29, 2023
James, Day 6 What is wisdom? Read James 3:13-18. When we think about wisdom, it can be easy to quickly go to intellectual knowledge. However, James does not define wisdom on the basis of knowledge. Wisdom is, first and foremost, from above. One cannot be wise without God. One cannot be wise apart from God. Wisdom comes from God and it is characterized by a number of attributes including peacefulness, purity, consideration, sincerity. Are we wise today? Do we seek our wisdom from God?