Study of James: Trials & What We Want
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Peace to Live By Study of James: Trials & What We Want - Daniel Litton
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[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word. Sections in bold are extra material that was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints]
James Chapter 1, starting in verse 12: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.” (ESV)
Today we are continuing our discussion on trials, and I think so far it has been beneficial for us. Perhaps we’ve seen angles and thought about things we’ve never thought about when it comes to trials. Nonetheless, James says here that it is “the [person] who remains steadfast under trial” that is the good one. We’ve already defined steadfastness, but let’s define it again to refresh our minds. Steadfastness could mean reliable, dependable, of true character, trustworthy, committed, loyal, and even faithful. The bottom line is that we made it through to the other side. We didn’t give up; we didn’t quit. We didn’t throw in the towel.
Like I’ve said the last couple of weeks, there are all kinds of trials we can face in our lives. Most will be on a smaller scale, and some on a larger scale. Some people deal with really big trials. And depending on where we stand on the Levels of Inner-Self, that will determine how we even view a trial. Some will take a more self-orientated position, and be engulfed in pity for oneself. Others are more positive, and feel that while what has happened is unfortunate, there is an overall drive in the person to conquer and overcome. They know God is on their side; there’s no doubt about that.
What are some common examples of trials? Well, here’s some on the smaller scale. The car’s tire is flat, the car won’t start, our friend is mad at us, the wife is upset and won’t talk, the dog is sick, the cat is clawing people, a ticket for speeding, a fine for some trash-related incident, getting in trouble at work, the assignment is late, the coffee machine broke, the power went out, the storm took down a tree, the house got storm damage, dinner burnt up in the oven.
What are some larger trials? Our friend decides she doesn’t want to be friends anymore, the husband leaves home, the wife is having an affair, the cat passes away, the dog has a terminal illness, a person is thrown behind bars, a person is fired from their job of ten years, the house catches fire, the apartment is destroyed in a tornado or hurricane, the doctor puts us on a special diet because we have been diagnosed with a disease, a parent dies, a spouse dies, you die.
Is God the one who tests us? I heard Pastor Rick Warren talk about this once. He said it’s not God who causes bad things to happen. We can look at Job for an example from Scripture that God actually isn’t the one who causes trials. If you read Job chapter 1, you see that it is really Satan who wants to cause harm to Job, not God. God certainly allowed him to do so, remember? But he told Satan he couldn’t take Job’s life. God was monitoring and watching the whole thing.
I think even for trials we feel we may have caused that Satan is often behind them. Let’s say you haven’t been eating right for a long time and you go to the doctor and find out you have Type-2 diabetes. You say to yourself, “I knew it. I should have been eating better. Why didn’t I listen to those background thoughts, those foreboding thoughts of warning?” You see, though, I think Satan can cause a spirit of delusion to come upon a person, and the person, for whatever the reason, doesn’t notice the obvious. He or she doesn’t take heed to what they ought to because of a blindedness caused by the enemy.
Regardless of whatever the trial is, really no matter what it is, the beautiful thing is that we have a choice in how we respond to it. And this choice of response then depends on our own level of Inner-Self. If we are negative minded, the trial is probably going to be seen as heavier and more problematic than it really is. It may be magnified to the point where it is out of proportion with reality. Recall, we said that “all that really matters is God.” It’s important to keep that thought at the forefront of the mind. That puts things into perspective.
So, the positive-minded person sees the trial as inconvenient perhaps, but nevertheless not devastating. Within the trial, opportunity is seen to grow. Opportunity is seen to marvel at how God can bring good out of whatever it is. Often it’s a chance to sit back and watch God’s work on display. In not seeing a trial as disastrous, a person is able to navigate through it much more easily. Since the firm foundation of positivity exists, the belief that God is on the person’s side, and the belief that good will come from it, that everything isn’t ruined, then can come the success at the end of it.
James said: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” (1:12, 13, ESV)
What is this crown of life that James is talking about? In one sense, when we come to the end of our lives, having made it there, no matter who we are in the Christian realm we are going to receive the promise of living our lives (after we transcend this earth) with the Lord Jesus forever, no matter where he is at. That’s all good and dandy. That’s the future, and it will be glorious; it will be realistic and awesome at the same time.
However, there is more to it I think when James discusses the crown of life here. I’m not much into Greek, but to understand this phrase here better it literally means that we “will receive the crown [that is] life.” In a sense, reading it that way it seems to be something that we receive while we are still currently living this life on the earth. It all goes back to what I’ve been saying. Trials then produce good for us. See that? It’s not just me saying that to make you feel good. It’s the actual end result of the trials that James is talking about here. Now we can see better into why God allows Satan to do certain things. Satan thinks he is causing ruin, but God sees past that to the good.
Looking at trials in light of giving up control we see that if we do not have too strong of an attachment to anything we really succeed. Jesus is the only One who is constant. The writer of Hebrews told us we are to fasten our ship’s anchor onto him. And in that analogy, the waters represent life. Water moves around; things change. God doesn’t change. With this in view then, negative things happening isn’t as shocking because we have given up strong attachment to things. We have our parents, our spouse, our children, our career, our house, our church, our money, our reputation. At the end of the day, though, because God is really all that matters, changes to these things while they make us sad perhaps for a certain prescribed time, they don’t hurt us for the long-term.
This is the crown of life. We receive the crown of life when we are able to navigate our ships through the waters safely. Trials teach us things—they allow us to grow. Other people’s trials also teach us if we let them. Trials can bring us closer to God, but really, if they do that it is because we weren’t close enough to him in the first place, right? When we are able to live life positively, to be on that positive flow of water, we see things differently. Eventually, nothing seems to be too dramatic—too bothersome to us.
Verses 13-15: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (ESV)
We as Christians do a lot of good. Really, on a human-level, all humans do varying degrees of good, right? You don’t have to be a die-hard Christian to be one who participates in the basic good for others. In fact, our American society prides itself on people doing good for others. We see it in the good times and in the bad times. Through all of this, though, while we as humans, or Christians, do in fact do good, there is the other part of us. There’s the other side. It’s what the Bible calls sin. And the Bible even says we all have a sin-nature. That’s why we need Jesus’ sacrifice.
Yes, we have desires. We have good desires and bad desires. I have noticed unfortunately that even the good desire tends to become a negative if we are not careful. I wish I didn’t have to say that, but it’s true. What I mean is that often the desires we see as good become too strong. Too strong of a wanting for anything pulls us away from God. When that happens, we can’t say, “All that matters is God.” We end up saying, “All that matters is my career, and of course God.” We say, “All that matters is finding a wife, and of course God matters too.” Or, we say, “All the matters is reaching retirement, and yes, of course, God matters as well.” None of these statements work for us. They violate the first command Charlton Heston received on the mountain.
Here’s what happens when we want something too much. Because we desire it so much, it cuts off God’s flow of power to help us to receive whatever it is. The craving, having become strong, brings forth death. You will find, for instance, that a person who is say, in their mid-thirties and isn’t married (and who wants to be), you will often find in talking to that person that they simply have too strong of a desire to in fact get married. And this has caused God’s power to be relinquished. Their strong desire has prevented them from receiving that which they have wanted to receive. They’ve spent a great amount of time on dating websites, going to this date and that date, considering this person at church (the one who really didn’t match what they wanted), old and young, and they’ve gotten nowhere.
What is the key to this person’s dilemma or anyone’s dilemma in this type of situation? Simply to say, “If I get married that is good. However, if I don’t, I’m am satisfied with that as well.” Now, for some of you right now, that sends shockwaves through your body. Making a statement like that seems absolutely terrifying. You see, though, the only way you’re ever going to really succeed in this is by giving up control of it—by giving up your desire for it. It’s that very yearning feeling that’s prohibiting you from receiving. Only when that has been given up, can things really flow.
When the wantingness is given up, then God’s power is allowed to flow. Life flows instead of death. There is no urgency to receive whatever it is. No urgency is present on the part of the person waiting for a spouse. Because, remember, “all that matters is God.” It may take some time, but my guess is that you will receive your spouse in due time after making this decision. God does care about what we want. He just doesn’t dig it when we desire it too strongly. And when giving up control, you don’t have to actually give it God. Sometimes that procedure makes the practice of this seem too stressful—and it can place an overall sense of obligation of keeping a new commandment. You simply can just give it up to yourself.
I have personal testimony to this fact because this was one of the things I was holding onto—that of finding a spouse. I remember I gave up control of the situation to myself (it wasn’t a promise I made to God or anything like that) and I didn’t tell anyone about my decision. About a week later, I was visiting with my mother on Sunday afternoon and without me mentioning anything at all in regard to this, she told me that she had had two dreams where she saw me in church with my wife and children. After she described my children, of course, I asked “What did my wife look like?” She had a basic description. This technique bore fruit for me very quickly.
Desire inside of us, what James is talking about here, isn’t just something that is related to a big thing. Probably more often than not, our desires, our evil desires, can be for small things. We can have a strong craving that people will notice the work we’ve done, and complement us on how great a job we did and how good we are. We can have the wish that we make it to work without missing any traffic lights, and in giving that up, we see that we make most of them. We can have the desire for what we want to do on a date with our significant other, only to find the person doesn’t want to do that, and we feel really down. Nothing is wrong with any of these desires. The issue is that when they cannot easily be let go of, then we know our desire is too strong and is costing us.
Then, of course, there is the longing for sin—things that are clearly sin. We all have that problem, because as Jesus said, sin resides in our hearts and it can come out naturally, with little effort on our parts. Interestingly enough, we can find that we have a strong desire to not sin, or to overcome a sinful habit. There is nothing wrong with getting rid of sin. However, remember, a desire that is too strong won’t work. We have to observe our sinful thoughts, not react to them, and let them pass. It is the very fear of sin that causes us to sin more. It is by not letting thoughts pass that thoughts get pushed down inside of us. We can either push a thought down out of fear of it, or we can let it play out, with no reaction, and therefore let it pass. Those are the only two options: push it down or let it pass. The choice is yours.
The fear may come up that observing a thought might actually cause a person to sin. I understand the concern. Sin only occurs, though, if we embrace whatever our minds are showing us. If we think a lustful thought, that’s not evil in and of itself in that we cannot control what comes into our minds. It’s only wrong if we say, “Yeah, I like that thought,” and we continue to willingly entertain it. It’s not wrong, however, to observe the thoughts without embracing them. You will see if you let the thoughts play out and pass, that they will go away more and more. Eventually, you won’t even think about that particular thought. I have been taught, you have been taught, that if we see certain things with our eyes, that those thoughts can permanently get inside our heads for us never to forget them. However, by giving up control of trying to get rid of thoughts, you will see that actually can go away forever.
Okay—I want to go back to the things we want. The reality is, even for a good desire, a person won’t receive what he or she wants if the wantingness remains too strong. That’s why you see older people who have never gotten married, or who married the wrong person. That’s why you see a person who always talks about moving up the company ladder never seeming to advance in their career. This is why the person who strongly yearns for more money never seems to get it. These people never seem to arrive at their desires. Their high hopes lead to death—lead to disappointment and cravings unfulfilled. And it’s all because they haven’t learned the key to this principle I am talking about in giving up control.
I remember when I first went to start Peace to Live By. I recorded nine episodes over the summer. Of course, I originally recorded the first just to see if I was any good. And after listening to that, I decided I was good. So, anyway, after recording nine episodes, I was in contact with the radio station to get on the air. This was, I want to say, August. I waited over three months and things weren’t going anywhere. At that point, I went to prayer with God and said, “Well, God, I’m going to give it a couple more weeks. And if things don’t work out, I’ll assume this path just isn’t your will and move on.” Within less than a week after praying that prayer, the show had been green-lighted for air and I was sending a script to Wayne Shepherd for the open and close of the program. You see what happened here? I had a desire for the show to get on the air. It was when I gave up that desire, when I decided I was okay if the show didn’t happen, that’s when it was allowed for the show to actually happen.
Next, James says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:16, 17, ESV)
It’s easy to become deceived about the good things that happen in our lives. The world says that we obtain through hard work and effort, through a persistent attitude. The legalistic Christian says we obtain through sacrifice and suffering, which is basically the same thing the world says. A difference can be that the legalistic person is in even worse shoes because he or she may be moving toward something that they ‘think’ inside their minds that God wants, when in reality God really doesn’t want that at all. Their negative mindset, the Negative Existence, being in Level Two, has clouded their thinking.
To put it plain and simply, the reality is that whatever we want in life doesn’t have to be received from hard work and sacrifice, trying hard, bending over backwards, or fighting for it. Yes, these methods can, and certainly often do, allow people to receive what they want. It’s just that, they aren’t needed, especially for the Christian. Even the non-Christian can win from this kind of mindset, for God gives his good things both to the good and bad, and to those who put into practice his basic, universal, all-encompassing laws. James tells us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” Do you see that? These gifts are called good and perfect. They are good and perfect in that they will match our own desire. Is it not God’s will to give his children good things that they ask him for?
These good and perfect gifts, the things we want, they come to us from the Father of lights. This title for God, the Father of Lights, this is a title from the Jewish people—who remember, this letter is addressed to by James. Nevertheless, this name of God—the Father of Lights—signifies and reminds us that God is Creator of the Universe and the Earth. If God is over all, and actually created all, how much more should we suppose that God wants to create good in our lives, just like he had in the Universe. We don’t want to be like the Moon during a Solar Eclipse, and move in front of the Sun and block God’s light. The Moon for a moment of time desires to be star of the show, and in doing so, blocks light coming down to the earth.
God doesn’t change. It’s not that we have to manipulate God to get what we want. If God doesn’t change, and we’re not getting what we want out of life, then what must change? The only possibility then is that we have to change. It is us who have the problem. It is us who have the too strong of desires, both for big things and for small things. We must change our attitude about the things we want, and give up control of them, and only then will we experience fulfilling life. God is really all that matters. Yes, when we think like that, when we have that attitude, then can be fulfilled in us the familiar statement from Jesus: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33, KJV).
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements:
Rick Warren, John MacArthur, and Joyce Meyer
James Chapter 1, starting in verse 12: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.” (ESV)
Today we are continuing our discussion on trials, and I think so far it has been beneficial for us. Perhaps we’ve seen angles and thought about things we’ve never thought about when it comes to trials. Nonetheless, James says here that it is “the [person] who remains steadfast under trial” that is the good one. We’ve already defined steadfastness, but let’s define it again to refresh our minds. Steadfastness could mean reliable, dependable, of true character, trustworthy, committed, loyal, and even faithful. The bottom line is that we made it through to the other side. We didn’t give up; we didn’t quit. We didn’t throw in the towel.
Like I’ve said the last couple of weeks, there are all kinds of trials we can face in our lives. Most will be on a smaller scale, and some on a larger scale. Some people deal with really big trials. And depending on where we stand on the Levels of Inner-Self, that will determine how we even view a trial. Some will take a more self-orientated position, and be engulfed in pity for oneself. Others are more positive, and feel that while what has happened is unfortunate, there is an overall drive in the person to conquer and overcome. They know God is on their side; there’s no doubt about that.
What are some common examples of trials? Well, here’s some on the smaller scale. The car’s tire is flat, the car won’t start, our friend is mad at us, the wife is upset and won’t talk, the dog is sick, the cat is clawing people, a ticket for speeding, a fine for some trash-related incident, getting in trouble at work, the assignment is late, the coffee machine broke, the power went out, the storm took down a tree, the house got storm damage, dinner burnt up in the oven.
What are some larger trials? Our friend decides she doesn’t want to be friends anymore, the husband leaves home, the wife is having an affair, the cat passes away, the dog has a terminal illness, a person is thrown behind bars, a person is fired from their job of ten years, the house catches fire, the apartment is destroyed in a tornado or hurricane, the doctor puts us on a special diet because we have been diagnosed with a disease, a parent dies, a spouse dies, you die.
Is God the one who tests us? I heard Pastor Rick Warren talk about this once. He said it’s not God who causes bad things to happen. We can look at Job for an example from Scripture that God actually isn’t the one who causes trials. If you read Job chapter 1, you see that it is really Satan who wants to cause harm to Job, not God. God certainly allowed him to do so, remember? But he told Satan he couldn’t take Job’s life. God was monitoring and watching the whole thing.
I think even for trials we feel we may have caused that Satan is often behind them. Let’s say you haven’t been eating right for a long time and you go to the doctor and find out you have Type-2 diabetes. You say to yourself, “I knew it. I should have been eating better. Why didn’t I listen to those background thoughts, those foreboding thoughts of warning?” You see, though, I think Satan can cause a spirit of delusion to come upon a person, and the person, for whatever the reason, doesn’t notice the obvious. He or she doesn’t take heed to what they ought to because of a blindedness caused by the enemy.
Regardless of whatever the trial is, really no matter what it is, the beautiful thing is that we have a choice in how we respond to it. And this choice of response then depends on our own level of Inner-Self. If we are negative minded, the trial is probably going to be seen as heavier and more problematic than it really is. It may be magnified to the point where it is out of proportion with reality. Recall, we said that “all that really matters is God.” It’s important to keep that thought at the forefront of the mind. That puts things into perspective.
So, the positive-minded person sees the trial as inconvenient perhaps, but nevertheless not devastating. Within the trial, opportunity is seen to grow. Opportunity is seen to marvel at how God can bring good out of whatever it is. Often it’s a chance to sit back and watch God’s work on display. In not seeing a trial as disastrous, a person is able to navigate through it much more easily. Since the firm foundation of positivity exists, the belief that God is on the person’s side, and the belief that good will come from it, that everything isn’t ruined, then can come the success at the end of it.
James said: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” (1:12, 13, ESV)
What is this crown of life that James is talking about? In one sense, when we come to the end of our lives, having made it there, no matter who we are in the Christian realm we are going to receive the promise of living our lives (after we transcend this earth) with the Lord Jesus forever, no matter where he is at. That’s all good and dandy. That’s the future, and it will be glorious; it will be realistic and awesome at the same time.
However, there is more to it I think when James discusses the crown of life here. I’m not much into Greek, but to understand this phrase here better it literally means that we “will receive the crown [that is] life.” In a sense, reading it that way it seems to be something that we receive while we are still currently living this life on the earth. It all goes back to what I’ve been saying. Trials then produce good for us. See that? It’s not just me saying that to make you feel good. It’s the actual end result of the trials that James is talking about here. Now we can see better into why God allows Satan to do certain things. Satan thinks he is causing ruin, but God sees past that to the good.
Looking at trials in light of giving up control we see that if we do not have too strong of an attachment to anything we really succeed. Jesus is the only One who is constant. The writer of Hebrews told us we are to fasten our ship’s anchor onto him. And in that analogy, the waters represent life. Water moves around; things change. God doesn’t change. With this in view then, negative things happening isn’t as shocking because we have given up strong attachment to things. We have our parents, our spouse, our children, our career, our house, our church, our money, our reputation. At the end of the day, though, because God is really all that matters, changes to these things while they make us sad perhaps for a certain prescribed time, they don’t hurt us for the long-term.
This is the crown of life. We receive the crown of life when we are able to navigate our ships through the waters safely. Trials teach us things—they allow us to grow. Other people’s trials also teach us if we let them. Trials can bring us closer to God, but really, if they do that it is because we weren’t close enough to him in the first place, right? When we are able to live life positively, to be on that positive flow of water, we see things differently. Eventually, nothing seems to be too dramatic—too bothersome to us.
Verses 13-15: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (ESV)
We as Christians do a lot of good. Really, on a human-level, all humans do varying degrees of good, right? You don’t have to be a die-hard Christian to be one who participates in the basic good for others. In fact, our American society prides itself on people doing good for others. We see it in the good times and in the bad times. Through all of this, though, while we as humans, or Christians, do in fact do good, there is the other part of us. There’s the other side. It’s what the Bible calls sin. And the Bible even says we all have a sin-nature. That’s why we need Jesus’ sacrifice.
Yes, we have desires. We have good desires and bad desires. I have noticed unfortunately that even the good desire tends to become a negative if we are not careful. I wish I didn’t have to say that, but it’s true. What I mean is that often the desires we see as good become too strong. Too strong of a wanting for anything pulls us away from God. When that happens, we can’t say, “All that matters is God.” We end up saying, “All that matters is my career, and of course God.” We say, “All that matters is finding a wife, and of course God matters too.” Or, we say, “All the matters is reaching retirement, and yes, of course, God matters as well.” None of these statements work for us. They violate the first command Charlton Heston received on the mountain.
Here’s what happens when we want something too much. Because we desire it so much, it cuts off God’s flow of power to help us to receive whatever it is. The craving, having become strong, brings forth death. You will find, for instance, that a person who is say, in their mid-thirties and isn’t married (and who wants to be), you will often find in talking to that person that they simply have too strong of a desire to in fact get married. And this has caused God’s power to be relinquished. Their strong desire has prevented them from receiving that which they have wanted to receive. They’ve spent a great amount of time on dating websites, going to this date and that date, considering this person at church (the one who really didn’t match what they wanted), old and young, and they’ve gotten nowhere.
What is the key to this person’s dilemma or anyone’s dilemma in this type of situation? Simply to say, “If I get married that is good. However, if I don’t, I’m am satisfied with that as well.” Now, for some of you right now, that sends shockwaves through your body. Making a statement like that seems absolutely terrifying. You see, though, the only way you’re ever going to really succeed in this is by giving up control of it—by giving up your desire for it. It’s that very yearning feeling that’s prohibiting you from receiving. Only when that has been given up, can things really flow.
When the wantingness is given up, then God’s power is allowed to flow. Life flows instead of death. There is no urgency to receive whatever it is. No urgency is present on the part of the person waiting for a spouse. Because, remember, “all that matters is God.” It may take some time, but my guess is that you will receive your spouse in due time after making this decision. God does care about what we want. He just doesn’t dig it when we desire it too strongly. And when giving up control, you don’t have to actually give it God. Sometimes that procedure makes the practice of this seem too stressful—and it can place an overall sense of obligation of keeping a new commandment. You simply can just give it up to yourself.
I have personal testimony to this fact because this was one of the things I was holding onto—that of finding a spouse. I remember I gave up control of the situation to myself (it wasn’t a promise I made to God or anything like that) and I didn’t tell anyone about my decision. About a week later, I was visiting with my mother on Sunday afternoon and without me mentioning anything at all in regard to this, she told me that she had had two dreams where she saw me in church with my wife and children. After she described my children, of course, I asked “What did my wife look like?” She had a basic description. This technique bore fruit for me very quickly.
Desire inside of us, what James is talking about here, isn’t just something that is related to a big thing. Probably more often than not, our desires, our evil desires, can be for small things. We can have a strong craving that people will notice the work we’ve done, and complement us on how great a job we did and how good we are. We can have the wish that we make it to work without missing any traffic lights, and in giving that up, we see that we make most of them. We can have the desire for what we want to do on a date with our significant other, only to find the person doesn’t want to do that, and we feel really down. Nothing is wrong with any of these desires. The issue is that when they cannot easily be let go of, then we know our desire is too strong and is costing us.
Then, of course, there is the longing for sin—things that are clearly sin. We all have that problem, because as Jesus said, sin resides in our hearts and it can come out naturally, with little effort on our parts. Interestingly enough, we can find that we have a strong desire to not sin, or to overcome a sinful habit. There is nothing wrong with getting rid of sin. However, remember, a desire that is too strong won’t work. We have to observe our sinful thoughts, not react to them, and let them pass. It is the very fear of sin that causes us to sin more. It is by not letting thoughts pass that thoughts get pushed down inside of us. We can either push a thought down out of fear of it, or we can let it play out, with no reaction, and therefore let it pass. Those are the only two options: push it down or let it pass. The choice is yours.
The fear may come up that observing a thought might actually cause a person to sin. I understand the concern. Sin only occurs, though, if we embrace whatever our minds are showing us. If we think a lustful thought, that’s not evil in and of itself in that we cannot control what comes into our minds. It’s only wrong if we say, “Yeah, I like that thought,” and we continue to willingly entertain it. It’s not wrong, however, to observe the thoughts without embracing them. You will see if you let the thoughts play out and pass, that they will go away more and more. Eventually, you won’t even think about that particular thought. I have been taught, you have been taught, that if we see certain things with our eyes, that those thoughts can permanently get inside our heads for us never to forget them. However, by giving up control of trying to get rid of thoughts, you will see that actually can go away forever.
Okay—I want to go back to the things we want. The reality is, even for a good desire, a person won’t receive what he or she wants if the wantingness remains too strong. That’s why you see older people who have never gotten married, or who married the wrong person. That’s why you see a person who always talks about moving up the company ladder never seeming to advance in their career. This is why the person who strongly yearns for more money never seems to get it. These people never seem to arrive at their desires. Their high hopes lead to death—lead to disappointment and cravings unfulfilled. And it’s all because they haven’t learned the key to this principle I am talking about in giving up control.
I remember when I first went to start Peace to Live By. I recorded nine episodes over the summer. Of course, I originally recorded the first just to see if I was any good. And after listening to that, I decided I was good. So, anyway, after recording nine episodes, I was in contact with the radio station to get on the air. This was, I want to say, August. I waited over three months and things weren’t going anywhere. At that point, I went to prayer with God and said, “Well, God, I’m going to give it a couple more weeks. And if things don’t work out, I’ll assume this path just isn’t your will and move on.” Within less than a week after praying that prayer, the show had been green-lighted for air and I was sending a script to Wayne Shepherd for the open and close of the program. You see what happened here? I had a desire for the show to get on the air. It was when I gave up that desire, when I decided I was okay if the show didn’t happen, that’s when it was allowed for the show to actually happen.
Next, James says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:16, 17, ESV)
It’s easy to become deceived about the good things that happen in our lives. The world says that we obtain through hard work and effort, through a persistent attitude. The legalistic Christian says we obtain through sacrifice and suffering, which is basically the same thing the world says. A difference can be that the legalistic person is in even worse shoes because he or she may be moving toward something that they ‘think’ inside their minds that God wants, when in reality God really doesn’t want that at all. Their negative mindset, the Negative Existence, being in Level Two, has clouded their thinking.
To put it plain and simply, the reality is that whatever we want in life doesn’t have to be received from hard work and sacrifice, trying hard, bending over backwards, or fighting for it. Yes, these methods can, and certainly often do, allow people to receive what they want. It’s just that, they aren’t needed, especially for the Christian. Even the non-Christian can win from this kind of mindset, for God gives his good things both to the good and bad, and to those who put into practice his basic, universal, all-encompassing laws. James tells us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” Do you see that? These gifts are called good and perfect. They are good and perfect in that they will match our own desire. Is it not God’s will to give his children good things that they ask him for?
These good and perfect gifts, the things we want, they come to us from the Father of lights. This title for God, the Father of Lights, this is a title from the Jewish people—who remember, this letter is addressed to by James. Nevertheless, this name of God—the Father of Lights—signifies and reminds us that God is Creator of the Universe and the Earth. If God is over all, and actually created all, how much more should we suppose that God wants to create good in our lives, just like he had in the Universe. We don’t want to be like the Moon during a Solar Eclipse, and move in front of the Sun and block God’s light. The Moon for a moment of time desires to be star of the show, and in doing so, blocks light coming down to the earth.
God doesn’t change. It’s not that we have to manipulate God to get what we want. If God doesn’t change, and we’re not getting what we want out of life, then what must change? The only possibility then is that we have to change. It is us who have the problem. It is us who have the too strong of desires, both for big things and for small things. We must change our attitude about the things we want, and give up control of them, and only then will we experience fulfilling life. God is really all that matters. Yes, when we think like that, when we have that attitude, then can be fulfilled in us the familiar statement from Jesus: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33, KJV).
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements:
Rick Warren, John MacArthur, and Joyce Meyer