Proverbs 16:18, James 4:6, Philippians 2:8

Watch on YouTube

The Bible talks a lot about pride. Proverbs 16 says this

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit precedes a fall. (James 4:6)

James four tells us that

“God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” (Proverbs 16:18)

That’s some strong language from God that speaks against the sin of pride. But I have to be honest, if I’m watching my kids and I see them do something kind for someone else when they don’t think anybody is watching, or if they do something amazing. I’m proud of them. And I’m sure you felt this too, that if you’ve worked a long time on a big project and it comes out well, you’re proud of the work that you do.

So why do we use this positive word to talk about something that God speaks against? Is all pride sinful? Here’s the distinction. So even in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam work. Work is a gift from God. Adam was to care for the garden. He was to name the animals that God had created. And so that sense of accomplishment, that good feeling that we have when a job is well done, that’s not sinful pride. That’s not what God is speaking against here. It’s gratitude. We’re saying, thank you, Lord, for enabling me to do what you’ve called me to do. Thank you, Lord, for giving me this job to complete.

Instead sinful pride is the opposite. It’s taking for ourselves what belongs to God. It’s taking credit for what he has given to us. And saying this instead belongs to me. Pride is dangerous because it takes the glory that belongs to God alone, and it keeps it for ourselves. At its core, pride is self worship. It’s setting ourselves up at the center of the story instead of God. And here’s the thing God loves us too much to let us stay there.

Because if we think that we are good enough for him, if we think that we can prove ourselves to him, we’ll never understand our real need for him. It’s only when we let the law work and remove any sense of self-righteousness from us, that we can truly understand what he has done for us, that we can truly understand the love that he has shown to us. And nowhere is that love more clearly shown than in His Son and our Savior, Jesus.

Now we look at Jesus and there is no pride there. There is no need for self-promotion. There is no need to prove himself. Philippians two says this

He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.(Philippians 2:8)

Jesus came not to take the glory, but to serve. He came in complete humility to dress himself in human flesh, to live for us, and then to go to the cross to die for us. And it’s on that cross where every single one of our sins was paid for, even the sin of pride. So when you feel that sin of pride creeping in, or when you have that question in your mind, is this gratefulness to God over a job well done? Is this a sense of accomplishment or is this sinful? Ask yourself this: am I pointing others to me? Or am I pointing others to my God? Am I giving the glory and gratitude to him, or am I taking it for myself? Am I trying to prove to God that I’m good enough? Or am I resting in the fact that Jesus is enough for me? Because that’s the good news. He is.

Because of Christ all of our sins are forgiven because of him we can live in total, complete gratitude. And the more clearly we see the love and the forgiveness that Christ has won for us, the more we can live not in self glory, but in gratitude and gratefulness for what he has done for us. The Lord’s blessings to you.

James 4:15-17

Watch on YouTube

All right, here’s one more thing to add when we think about how am I going to find and follow God’s will for my life? Determining what God’s will is, is relatively simple. We look at what His Word says, and we see if is this according to God’s will or not? We don’t look at our feelings and try and just feel out what I feel like must be the direction. But look at his word, and then if the options are according to his will, go and do that. Now, what kind of option should we be looking for? Listen to some more of these verses from James chapter four.

Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. (James 4:15-17)

So we can see God’s law working in our heart as a mirror here. He shows us not just sins that we commit the sins of commission, but also sins of omission, that God gives us all these opportunities. And when we know good that we can do and we don’t do it, that’s sinful too. We need a Savior, and we have a Savior for that, even for our sins of omission, the good that we didn’t do. Jesus came and he looked at people. And the Bible says that he saw them, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He went and he rescued and saved and helped them physically and ultimately took their sins and our sins to the cross.

And that empowers us to also use these words as a guide for us, right? He says, if anyone knows the good they ought to do. They should do it. So what is according to God’s will? Well, look at all the stations in life that God has placed you in, and start there and look for good that you might be able to do.

Are you a mom or a dad? There are probably opportunities for you to do good in your family, your spouse, your children. Who can you help? Are you an employee or an employer? Look for good. Look for people that you can help as you go about your day to day life. Stop and listen and hear people’s story and see what they’re going through because there’s probably opportunity for good. He says watch out for arrogant schemes. And that happens because arrogance is when we’re mostly thinking about ourselves, he says instead, look to others.

As we look for ways to follow God’s will, maybe your prayer will be God, show me opportunities to do good. Show me your Son who looked for opportunities and was good already in my place. And then empower me to follow your will as I serve others.

James 4:15

Watch on YouTube

So what is God’s will? The book of James says instead, instead of just making all of our own plans as if God doesn’t exist.

Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. (James 4:15)

So when we start with that question of what is God’s will? The first place I always want you to go is, is to remember that God’s will, the will, the very desire, the heart of God our Savior, is that all people are saved by coming to a knowledge of the truth. God’s will for you is that you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as you grow in that, it happens by looking at his revealed Word and by studying His Word. So what is God’s will for us? It doesn’t have to be this mystical thing, or a feeling or a sign that we’re looking for. In fact, it really shouldn’t be. If you want to know what God’s will is, you look where he’s expressed his will in his word. And a lot of times that answers the question for us.

For our questions, we can just start by saying, well, does God speak about this? You can start with things like the Ten Commandments. If you’re wondering, what does God have to say? What’s God’s will for me in my marriage? If it’s going, oh, it’s just it’s really hard and there’s a lot of stress going on here. Well, God’s will isn’t for you to go and get a divorce. God’s will is for you to work through this and to get support and to have forgiveness and reconciliation. He says that in his word. So we don’t get to say, well, it’s God’s will for me to be happy, so I’m going to go do this or that. A lot of our questions can be answered by looking at the Ten Commandments and looking at what God says.

And if God speaks about a topic, then we can know what God’s will is. It’s pretty simple, but sometimes it can be hard for us to swallow if it’s not what our sinful nature wants to do.

What is God’s will in all of those situations where he doesn’t speak about this? Well, here’s what we can do. You can start by looking at the biblical principles. What does God say about this in general? You can hold those out. You can weigh them, you can talk with Christian friends, and then you can figure out, are my options according to God’s will? And if they are, if your choices, maybe it’s a new job and neither a job option is a sinful option. They’re both according to God’s will. You don’t have to know one specific thing that God in his all knowing mind has decided in advance for you to do. You can just say, God is going to bless me with either of these decisions. And I and I pray to him, and I ask him to bless me. And then using the judgment and the wisdom that he gives you, go and step forward boldly and make a good decision.

And here’s the thing, as we make decisions, as we seek to follow God’s will, we have a Savior who has done this perfectly in our place. Jesus came, and every moment of his life he was seeking to follow His Father’s will. His will as true God was right in line with God the Father’s will. And he never made a decision that was against the revealed will of God. The Bible tells us he never sinned, even though Satan was tempting him to do that and he he followed God’s will even when it was the hardest option.

Sometimes we think, Oh God is opening a door for me, and we think God’s will must be the easiest option out there. Well, that’s not even how it worked with Jesus. It was not the easiest option for the Son of God to carry all of our sins, including our sins of trying to make, our will, God’s will. He takes all of them to the cross, submits to the will of the father so that he can live and die in your place, and that your sins are forgiven. All of these options of joyful freedom are open to you as we’re empowered to make decisions according to God’s will. God bless you as you do that.

James 4:13-15

Watch on YouTube

Hi, I’m Pastor Marcus Nelson at Saint Paul’s North Mankato and the Beacon campus ministry. One question that we get a lot with our college students is, how do I know what I should do with my life? What is the Lord’s will for me? So over these next few devotions, I want to just take a little bit of a look at that and we’ll start in James chapter four.

So James talks about this a little bit starting in verse 13 as he says,

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)

So as we just start by thinking about this concept of what is, what is the Lord’s will, how should we make our plans? First, God’s word says, know yourself, remember who you are and check your attitude about that too. Because he says you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while. It seems like as people were making their plans, they were saying something that at face value doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with it. We’re making our plans. We’re going to spend a year here, we’re going to have our business, we’re going to make money. Nothing wrong with that, except that it seems like they are just leaving God out of the equation.

Do you ever find yourself doing that too? Just functionally living as a secular humanist, thinking that you are the be all and end all and that it’s your plans and really, really is God all that involved at all? Well, God wants us to check our hearts and think about that and remember that he is the one who guides all things in this world, and that we should go to him with our plans. And remember, if it’s the Lord’s will, we’ll do this or that.

As we make decisions, as we seek to follow God’s will. We have a Savior who has done this perfectly in our place. Jesus came and he looked at people, and the Bible says that he saw them, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He went and he rescued and saved and helped them physically and ultimately took their sins and our sins to the cross.

So we remember who we are. We’re a mist. We’re just here for a little while. We are not God himself, so there’s no reason for us to act like that. But who is God? Well, he’s our Lord and Savior, who looks at us, who are just here for a little while, a little insignificant mist. And what is God’s will for us? Well, here’s one aspect of it God wants all people to be saved. God our Savior wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. He wants you not just to be this little mist that disappears far apart from him, but to be with him forever and ever.

So in some future devotions, we’ll look at what is the will of God. But for now, we check our attitude and remember who our Lord is.

James 2:26

Watch on YouTube

You live among a hidden kingdom. Its members are all around you every day. It is a kingdom that defies geographical borders. But without fail, these members of the kingdom, week after week, show their colors. They don their colors of purple and gold. Sometimes they put on these ridiculous looking hats with horns on them, sometimes even paint their bodies and wear these yellow mustaches. Without fail, though, they all gather together around their TVs in their stadium, proudly wear their colors and to cheer on their team.

Now, I don’t know what team you might cheer on, but if I were to tell you that I am a Vikings fan, but I have an outfit and it’s sitting in my closet. But I never wear it. I never gather for games. I never watch games and never cheer for the Vikings. Well, I would be lying to you if I told you I was a real Vikings fan because I’m not really wearing my colors.

This is what the Bible says in James when he says

Faith without works is dead. (James 2:26)

I can’t see a person’s beating heart inside their chest, but it’s really obvious when someone is actually alive and well because they’re doing something a living person does. They’re walking, breathing, talking, interacting with people. The same is true of the Christian faith. We can’t look into a person’s heart and see if there’s truly faith there. But by their actions, by that person wearing their colors and living a Christian life, you can tell if there is saving faith.

This is really important because in American Christianity we live amongst an epidemic of apathy. More and more Christians are telling themselves that I can truly believe in Christ, but I don’t have to live as a disciple of Christ. I can call myself a believer, but I don’t have to attend church or belong to a church. These Christians are deceiving themselves. Like James says, faith without works is a dead faith.

So what is the Kingdom of God? It begins with faith in the heart. But Paul tells us in Romans 15, it is a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of peace, a kingdom of joy in the Holy Spirit. It is a kingdom of righteousness. It’s not about our works, but what Jesus has done for us. He covers us with His holy, precious blood. He makes us members of his kingdom through the declaration your sins are forgiven. That truth, that reality gives us peace. Peace knowing we’re going to heaven. Peace, knowing we have a right relationship with God. Peace, knowing that if the worst were to happen to me today, that I confidently can look death in the face and know that my future is certain because I’m going to be in heaven with Jesus.

And that real righteousness that Christ gives you, that real peace that Jesus gives you produces real joy. Real joy that means I can’t let that stay hidden in my heart, but I’m going to wear my colors. I’m going to support my team. I’m going to cheer for the gospel and support the gospel and gather week after week with my fellow Christians to cheer on the home team.

That’s what we pray for when we pray. Thy kingdom come. We’re asking our Lord Jesus to first of all conquer our hearts so that through us he would continue to work his wonders. To continue to spread the gospel and help his kingdom here on Earth grow. So thy kingdom come. Amen.

James 5:7-8, Psalm 46:10

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

Sometimes we struggle with being patient. One of the professions that we have in our world that I think demonstrates the most patience and most reliance upon God is the vocation of farmer. And James, in James, Chapter five, he uses the farmer as an example of being patient.

Therefore, brothers, be patient until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the valuable harvest from the ground, patiently waiting for it, until it receives the early and late rain. You be patient too. Strengthen your hearts because the coming of the Lord is near. (James 5:7-8)

There’s a lady that I visit. And this woman has been through tremendous difficulties, great hardships in her life. Terrible tragedies. And on top of it all, she has terrible disease and illness. She’s confined to a wheelchair and unable to really communicate well with other people. Every time I visit her, I tell her that I consider her to be one of my heroes because of the patients that she has, the patient endurance that she has through all these struggles. Behind her bed in her nursing home room are beautiful pictures of Jesus. And she points to those her hope and her faith in God, in spite of the troubles that she faces, in spite of the hardship that she’s had in her life. She knows that God is there for her. And she confesses this faith in spite of the difficulties that she has and has had throughout her life. She knows that heaven is her future home, and in this she rejoices.

And it’s inspirational. It’s a breath of fresh air, especially for me as a pastor. And I walk in and I get to minister to her. Sometimes I’m impatient and I walk in and I have all these stresses and things going through my own brain of everything that needs to get done and all these other people that I need to see and try and help. What an inspiration she is to me in this kind of way. Being patient. Reminds me of a Bible verse also from Psalm 46.

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

Be patient. Wait on the Lord. His salvation is here for us. That’s what keeps us going. The coming of the Lord is near. Heaven is our home. Because our sins are completely forgiven. Because of our Savior Jesus. We know that we have a place waiting for us at His side and through the struggles and troubles that we face in life, we can endure. We can be patient. We can sit around like the farmers waiting for the rain to do its job and for God’s gift of life and the seeds to bring forth the crop. God’s at work for you and me. And we pray.

Thank you, Lord, for all that you’ve done. Help us to be patient. Help us to be still and know that you are the God that is here for us. We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.

God’s peace be with you.

James 4:13-15

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

Last summer, my family and I took a vacation to northern Georgia. We went to a beautiful planned community in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. We had been there before and we knew what sort of amenities they offered that they had a beautiful beach there, manmade lake that was spring fed, and at the beach, on the water there they had so many wonderful things to do, like kayak and paddleboard. They had inflatables for the kids to play on. They even had a couple of hundred foot natural rock slide.

When we got down there, the weather was unseasonably cool for early June. Yet we decided to make the best of it and still went to the beach anyway. Our mouths dropped open, though, when we got there and saw that there was no lake. It was all gone because there was an issue with the dam, so they had to drain the whole thing and it would be months until it was fixed. We were quite disappointed.

Perhaps it’s happened for you that you’ve made plans when it comes to a vacation or a trip, but it hasn’t quite worked out the way that you had hoped. Maybe the same is true, not just for a vacation, but for your life. Maybe you’ve had great plans concerning what career you want to do. Maybe hopes and dreams for finding the perfect spouse. Or maybe settling down and having a family with X number of children. Maybe you look forward to spending years and years of retirement, enjoying all of the wealth that you accumulated over the course of your lifetime.

How have those plans worked out for you? There’s individuals that maybe had to drop out of school in order to make ends meet for them and their family, other individuals that never found the right person to marry, or maybe they didn’t get married and it ended up in divorce. Maybe those kids that they’d hoped for never came. Or maybe they turned out to be rebellious and turned against you. Or maybe sickness and disease or accident, injury, death, maybe came and threw off all of your plans that you had for life or even retirement. You know, when it comes to planning, God really instructs us in his word and James chapter 4 when he tells us this

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city, spend a year there, do business, and make a profit.” You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? Indeed, it is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. Instead, it is better for you to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live, and we will do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)

It’s a good reminder to us that for all the planning that we can do, we aren’t in control, are we? But we know the one who is. We know that God is in control of all things and that he even knows the future. We can trust God’s will. We might wonder, though, what is God’s will for us, what is God’s will for the future? Well, the Bible tells us plainly, it is God’s will that you be sanctified. It’s God’s desire that each and every one of us be holy and live holy lives. It certainly isn’t God’s will or plan for us to sin. But we also know, as it says, in scripture, God, our Savior wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We know that God wants us to know his word, to know his truth better. We know that it’s God’s plan for us to be with him forever one day in heaven. We know that he’s carrying out that plan even now, even at times when we don’t understand how it could possibly be.

You know, when it came to that trip with my family down in northern Georgia, things didn’t work out the way that we expected. In fact, we ended up having to spend more time together back in the cabin. Ended up being an enjoyable vacation, though, as we spend more time with one another and we also maybe had a bit more rest and relaxation than we would have had if we would have been running around just like we had planned. So too, we can make many plans when it comes to this life, when we can trust that God’s will for us is good and that God is carrying out his plan to bring us to be with him forever in heaven. So make your plans, make your hopes and dreams for the future, have them. But also pray that God’s will be done and trust that his will for you is good. Amen.

James 1:17-18, 21

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

Our reading today is from James Chapter 1 verses 17, 18 and 21.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created… …humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. (James 1:17-18, 21)

When I was a young pastor, I would spend a lot of time preparing for sermons and Bible studies and confirmation classes and things, and it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn’t really taking the time to care for my own spiritual life. My work was always so directed at helping others. And one day I was reading an article written by a pastor about this very thing, and he kept referring to what he called “professionalizing your faith,” professionalizing your faith. And that really hit me. That the time I would often spend studying God’s word was not so much to help strengthen my faith, but to make sure I was going to be able to teach it to someone else very well. Now there’s still a blessing that can come from that, but it showed me how easy it was even as a pastor, for me to not really let the Word of God go down into my heart and into my soul. And I started having to take a little more time with my own personal devotions in the morning.

My own soul needed to be nourished with that wonderful Word of God, which is exactly what James is writing about here. He speaks about the Word of God and says that the Holy Spirit, through that wonderful word about Jesus, our Savior gave us birth, he says. Spiritual birth, made us alive, giving us faith in Christ. He goes on to say that this has been planted in us, the idea of a plant that’s now growing. Jesus uses that quite a bit in parables, doesn’t he? To refer to faith inside of someone as a plant that then can produce fruit. And that plant is symbolic of life that God has created inside of our hearts. When we realize our sin and hold on to what Jesus Christ our Savior has done for us to forgive us of that sin.

I’ve got a lot of different bad habits I can fall into in my life, one of them is Oreo cookies. If you ever have a package of Oreo cookies in the house, I just have a hard time resisting eating them and sometimes I’ll just say, take them out of the house. I don’t even want them around me.

It’s also challenging for me to establish and keep up with good habits as well. Whenever we hear God’s Word and listen to that Word, God the Holy Spirit tries to create in our hearts a good habit of loving that Word and wanting to hear more about it. To apply God’s law and his wonderful gospel to ourselves every time we read those devotions. And yet we’re always tempted to in, even in very subtle ways, despise the Word of God. The third commandment warns about that, to be careful not to despise God’s Word. And sometimes even when we’re in church by just not paying attention or by letting our minds focus on other things, we can very subtly begin to despise that Word of God.

I was probably one of the worst hearers when I was 12 years old. When I was a little boy going to church there were so many other distractions and things that could take my mind off of a sermon. What a blessing it is that you and I have a Savior who we know in scripture as a 12 year old boy loved that Word of God for us. He kept the perfect record of being the perfect listener, the perfect believer that you and I could never be. And he’s given us that perfect record of righteousness as our own and forgives us even for the times when we might, even in a very subtle way, despise the Word of God.

It’s that wonderful word from our Savior that sustains us in that faith and will someday take us into heaven. Just think when you’re in heaven someday, how you’re going to look back on the time that you spent in God’s Word. Listening to it or reading it or discussing it. Think how, from heaven’s perspective, we’re going to have such a different appreciation than we maybe even do in this life right now. What a great gift it is that our Heavenly Father has given us the knowledge of our Savior through that precious Word. May we always treasure it. Amen.

You’re in my thoughts and my prayers.

You can see that posted all over Facebook and online when someone is going through a tragedy or hardship. You’re in my thoughts and my prayers. I think that saying is being used so much that it’s almost empty of its meaning now. It’s like a cliche that we say when anyone is going through a difficulty.

Do we really mean it or are we just saying it to make us feel good?

You’re in my thoughts in my prayers.

The sad thing is that that statement is actually a great comfort. We can approach the throne of grace through our prayers. That’s no small matter. James writes about how big a deal that is in Chapter 5 verse 16. He said

The prayer of a righteous person is able to do much because it is effective. (James 5:16b)

Prayer is effective because we’re approaching the King of Grace. We’re approaching the God of heaven. If there is anyone who can do anything about our difficulties and problems it’s God. And he has given us the right and privilege to approach him and present our requests to him.

We can bring our friends who are hurting.

We can bring the tragedies of the world to his attention.

We can bring our needs and concerns to him and he promises to hear us.

He promises to hear us not because we’ve been good enough to earn his favor but because he loves us in Jesus. Because of Jesus God hears our prayers.

You are in my thoughts and prayers. Fill that not only with words, but also with action and approach the God who loves us in the person of Jesus. Amen.

Watch on YouTube