Misty Morning

What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. James 4:14 (ESV)

Thanks to an overnight drop in temperature the roads on my morning walk today were misty – I loved it. On my return in my reading I was therefore struck by the question and answer that James raises here as he figuratively speaks of our lives.

If I went out in two hours there will be no mist. It would have disappeared. That is the nature of mist. It is temporary. And James uses this temporary and fleeting image and applies it to our lives.

Granted he is especially adressing the proud and boastful person who assumes that his planning and efforts are the sole basis for success. A person who omits God out of the equation forgets according to James the very fleeting nature of his life. The Lord Jesus addressed this when he spoke of an accumulator who kept growing bigger and bigger, making grander and grander plans – without God. To such a man the Lord said,
             ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything
you worked for?’ Luke 12:20 (NLT)

When I forget the fleeting nature of my life I forget to trust the Lord, I forget to make the most of my life with eternity in mind. That is the aim of the Lord’s rebuke in Luke 12:20 for He went on to say in the next verse:
               “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a
rich relationship with God.” (NLT)

The people in James’s day were similar accumulators ignoring the fleeting nature of their lives and the priority to have a ‘rich relationship with God’. This is what we are here for more than anything else. In an age of increasing consumerism I can get so carried away with the latest consumer durable goods and salivate to get the latest electronic gadget forgetting that these are all like the mist – they will soon be gone. The only thing I can carry into eternity is my relationship with God. And according to the Lord I can have a rich one and by implication a poor one.

Jesus we’re told in 2 Corinthians 8:9, became poor so that we can be rich. And although it is very much in the context of money we must not ignore the wider teaching of the bible that God doesn’t want money to be our master, that He gives us the money so that we can be generous to the needy, the work of His church and continue to focus on developing our relationship with God. How urgently I need this lesson for how quickly my attention can slip away to the gift instead of having it fixed on the Giver of it all.

So let me make this year, the remaining years of my life count for God. Yes, I will plan. But I will plan with this deep awareness that apart from Him I can do nothing (John 15:5). I will plan with the priority of developing my relationship with God. For I am like the misty morning – here today, gone tomorrow.

“Probably the arrogance James denounced in 4:13–17 came from self-confident Jewish businessmen who planned their lives without reference to God’s will. James warned his readers that life resembled a transitory vapor and that all of life must be planned with reference to God’s will. The sin James described in this paragraph is an example of a sin of omission.” (Holman Concise Commentary)

“Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.”
WILLIAM WILLIAMS (1717–1791)

“Father thank you for the powerful reminder this morning of the fleeting nature of my life. While I am here I want my life to count, for it to bring glory to you. So help me to plan and obey according to your will. As i live, relate, work and travel let me do it all with the focus of seeking to develop a rich relationship with you. I pray that for the church this morning that this will be the focus of our lives. We will not be distracted by the hucksters who urge us to buy their products for life satisfaction. Help us Lord to have You as the main source of our satisfactio. Satisfy us deeply in You, help us drink deeply of you so that as Jeremiah warned us we may not drink from other cisterns. Be our joy and our delight Lord, today and everyday I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen”

Steadfast At The Start

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:4 (ESV)

Here is a good goal for the start of the year steadfastness; the ability by the grace of God to stick it through, to remain committed, to stand fast, to not turn away, to hold on, to not give up, to persevere.

This is but a middle ingredient, the product of being tested through trials and the means to three things – perfection, completeness and lacking in nothing. That is a great aim and goal for 2014. To receive the supernatural release from God to be content in Him alone. After all as later verses of this chapter tell us He is the ultimate steadfast Person, with whom ‘there is no shadow of turning’. He is the one who did not turn away from the Cross who for the ‘joy set before Him’, ‘endured’ it and in doing so provided all the help we need for being steadfast like Him. Like Him we are to endure and be steadfast in the trials of life for the joy of completeness and contentment in Him.

Here then is encouragement and strength to be like my Saviour by the power and wisdom He generously supplies. By this power I can stop being like a wave tossed about, stop being double minded, stop being just a hearer of God’s word and become a steadfast doer with singleness of mind.

“In trial the believer must ask for an understanding of the purpose behind the divine permission of the difficulty. An incentive to do this is that God will give generously to those who ask and will not humiliate them for asking. Those who face trial with perseverance receive a crown of life from God as a reward for their stamina.”  (Holman Concise Commentary)

“For the Christian, everything begins and ends with worship. Whatever interferes with one’s personal worship of God needs to be properly dealt with and dismissed. Keep in mind that above all else, worship is an attitude, a state of mind and a sustained act. It is not a physical attitude, but an inward act of the heart toward God.” (A W Tozer, My Daily Pursuit)

‘I pray that each of us will be steadfast in God this year, steadfast and faithful to the Lord, family, friends and vocation. I ask in Jesus name that by the supply of supernatural power in this year of supernatural release God would prise away those distractions that keep us from being steadfast and help us to hold steady to Him and His purposes.’

Image courtesy: http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/295/703/295703683_640.jpg

Content for Christ

“For the sake of Christ, then,  I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak then I am strong”. 2 Corinthians 12:10 (ESV)

The familiarity of the last phrase can make us forget the first phrase, the foundation of this strength. It is a contentment for the sake of Christ. The apostle tells us that is the root of his ability in the face of human weakness to face natural and supernatural hardship. We are all familiar with the former and indeed he gives us a list here including persecutions and calamities. But let us not forget that there was a supernatural element to these difficulties. I use supernatural here in a negative way. Often we associate supernatural with the miracle working power of God. But supernatural is also that dimension that is beyond the natural and the background of these hardships that the apostle is facing is a personal ‘messenger of Satan’!

The devil had the apostle in the crosshairs of his hardship scope and he shot bullet after bullet of pain, hardship and suffering. But Paul remained strong bolstered by the fact that in his weakness the strength of God would flow as he learned the secret of being content in and for Christ.

My personal agitation in difficulties, hardships and (God forbid!) persecutions shows my personal lack of contentment in and for Christ. My agitation shows a lack of understanding the power of contentment for when I know the sovereignty of God, the providential care of my Heavenly Father and learn to rest in His care in every circumstance I will be strong, even though I am essentially weak.

May I with Paul take time to learn the secret of being content as he said elsewhere, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want” Philippians 4:12 (NIV)