Responding to God at All Times
Throughout our lives, we will experience both suffering and joy. We will have times of great grief and times of overflowing happiness. Sometimes, they’ll be separate seasons—but sometimes these experiences come together.
In either case, James expected Christians to come to God. If someone was suffering, prayer was the call to action. If someone was cheerful, people were to praise God.
This might seem obvious, but when suffering clouds our thinking, we can sometimes forget to prioritize prayer. And when things are going well and we are cheerful, it’s easy to just enjoy our season and not think to praise God for it. But every season of life is actually just an opportunity to put into practice what James wrote about…
When we are suffering, let us pray. When those around us are suffering, let us pray. When we are cheerful or happy, let us praise God. When others are happy, let us praise God with them. In every circumstance or situation, let’s go to God with everything, and trust Him with everything.
When we do that, we keep our eyes on Jesus, and He helps us endure every situation we face.
So what are you facing right now? Take a moment to pray to God and tell Him all you’re going through. Then, reflect on the good things happening in your life, and tell God, “Thank You.”
Are You Ready?
The greatest measure of who we are and what we love is how we spend our time.
Where do you spend most of your time? Most of us spend our days with family, at work, or on hobbies. All of those are important things that we should invest in, but Jesus says there’s another thing that we need to spend time doing.
There are a lot of different ideas people have for when Jesus will return but, ultimately, Jesus says that nobody will know the time and date. He will come at a time when we least expect Him.
So until He does come, He says that we should be ready. We tend to spend most of our time working on finding the right career, or pursuing certain relationships, or building wealth and possessions. And yet, none of those things will prepare us for when Jesus returns.
So what can we do to prepare?
The first thing is to put your faith in Jesus, by believing that He gave His life so that you could have eternal life. Next, commit to spending time with Him, confessing your mistakes and ...