Quarantine & James 3

Over the past couple of weeks, our student ministry has been learning and growing about how to love people from 6 ft away. One thing that we've loved being able to do is connect with our students through a daily devotional video. Last week we walked through James, and I had the privilege of breaking down James 3 one of the days, and I thought I'd share verse-by-verse what I got from this particular chapter! 

1-2 // opens right up and tells us that no one is perfect & controlling our words… no one except Jesus has mastered it. then James makes these comparisons in verses 3-5 // He compares our tongue, or words to a bit that controls a horse, rudder that controls a ship, and sparks that set off forest fires — in other words, even though our tongue is small, and we may think that our words don’t hold a lot of value,  it is so much more powerful than we could ever imagine!
It’s so powerful that in verse  6 // James says that what we say can corrupt our entire bodies.

​Like in verse 9-12 we see an impact, we see this picture of what it literally and metaphorically looks like for us to be two faced. Right? So nod ya head if you know someone two-faced. Keep nodding your 213w head if you’ve been that someone…. that’s what I thought!
James says that cursing out of one mouth and blessing out of the other is like a fig tree trying to produce olives… — ..that just doesn’t make sense.

NOW! Maybe You’re telling me that “Rachel, I know all this! I’ve read this, I try and tame my tongue. What else? What now? What’s Next?”

Okay great… James tells us EXACTLY WHAT”S NEXT..
Verse 13 says, “If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.” Idk about you but I’m not always wise and understanding of all God’s ways, and so thankfully, James continues on and he gives us a little heart to heart look at vs. 14-16 // he covers selfishness, bitterness, jealousy, — he says that wherever we have these things in our hearts, we can find disorder and evil of every kind.

​Just really quick — between you and me, when you find yourself sinning, or being disobedient - don’t you always find your life and mind a bit chaotic? OR let me put it this way, when you’re in unison with and obedient to God, isn’t your mind so much more inclined to be at peace? When we are striving to be in God’s words and in communion with Him, vs. 17 tell us that seeking wisdom is not only pure, but its peace-loving, gentle, full of mercy, helps us not show favoritism, is always sincere, and full of fruit or good deeds.
And vs. 18 tells us that if we do these things we’ll plant seeds of peace & reap righteousness
A couple questions and things to think about for you all…

• Are you asking God to help you tame your tongue, or watch your words?
• Are you struggling with being two-faced and if so, why? Try and Identify which different masters you’re trying to serve at once.
• And if you find yourself out of unison with God, I want to encourage you today that God is not waiting for you to clean yourself up - start talking to him NOW! Ask him to help you tame your tongue, to have HIM as your only master! Because life with God is so much better and it’s the only way to live.

We hope you have a great day and don’t forget to join us on Sunday of your online services! We love ya & we’ll see you in the next one!