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James 4:11-17 Devotional – Day 5

By February 10, 2023Daily Devotional

ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness

VERACITY OF GOD This is that perfection of God in virtue of which He is  true in His inner being, in His revelation, and in His relation to His people.  He is the true God over against the idols, knows things as they really are. 

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect,  and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Praise God for His Veracity.
Praise God because He is true. Praise God because He has revealed Himself. Praise God because He knows things as they are.

CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100

SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.

    • Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
    • Pray for your friends and family who do not know Christ. Ask God to give you opportunities to have gospel conversations.

SCRIPTURE READING:
James 4:11-17 – Christian Standard Bible
11 Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Our Will and God’s Will
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Matt 26
Do you have a free heart? Jesus did, but clearly it did not come easily. It came quickly for him because he was always ready with a “yes” to his Father’s will, but it did not come easily for him. His Father’s will was going to be costly, and Jesus experienced life just as we do. To see what was coming for him was hard, how could it not be? To ask for another way was reasonable, who wouldn’t? To yield to what his Father wanted was powerful. We can easily say “Thy will be done” but that is different than truly living there in both our hearts and our lives. Don’t be dismayed that it is a struggle to have a free heart, it is normal. At the same time, don’t accept anything other than a free heart as being acceptable for the follower of Christ, it is not. We must struggle to get to the place where we say, “They will be done” and we must keep careful watch over our hearts so that they stay in that place.

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