Lacking Nothing

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1: 2-4

Being a Christian isn’t easy, even God will attest to that.  Every day we find ourselves in various trials and difficult situations.  The word used here is peirasmos which is not a temptation to sin, but rather a testing that is directed towards an end.  The goal is to emerge better, stronger, and purer from the testing.

It’s clear that God’s will for us is to have patience and perseverance, so much so that He gives us countless “opportunities” to develop it in our lives.  Big ones.  Small ones.  Major once in a lifetime ones.  Everything from life altering events to minor everyday annoyances.  Each an opportunity to develop and display the fruit of the Holy Spirit…or not.

James teaches that when endurance, steadfastness, and patience are fully developed in our lives we too will be fully developed, lacking nothing.  The devil can’t control us when we are mature, patient, persevering Christians.

James also teaches that we should be joyful about such trials, the AMP says to be wholly joyful.  Obviously that’s a tough thing to do unless we have the right perspective - that mind of Christ that is also wholly assured that the trial will prove, exercise and strengthen our faith and produce good results.

Often times we lose our patience and then make the excuse “I’m just not a patient person.”  As if patience is an inherent characteristic that you either have or you don’t.  How many other character flaws do we accept as a given, unchangeable  part of our nature blinded to the fact that God expects more from us and gives us the power to change?

I almost think it’s easier to patiently endure the major tests in life.  Not only do we recognize them for what they are, but we also bear down and put forth all our effort.  What about those “pop quizzes” that occur every day?  The screaming baby, the slow driver, the misplaced or messed up paperwork, the lady counting out exact change, the unhelpful help desk operator…

When it’s just a minor annoyance or inconvenience we try to fix or control it, figure out why, vent our frustrations or assign blame.  While trying to fix a problem is a good thing, we mustn’t let the problem steal our joy, extinguish our patience, or tarnish the fruit that we’re developing and displaying to others.  And we mustn’t overlook it as a divinely assigned test from God.

Christians shouldn’t be impatient, grumpy, lashing out people.  Sure if we’re in a bad mood we can forgive and extend grace, we know God does.  But unbelievers don’t know grace, they just see impatient, grumpy so-called Christians.  And when we behave in a manner unworthy of Christ, they see hypocrites. 

The Lord expects joyful, enduring patience from His children, and He gives us the Holy Spirit to help us develop it so that we lack nothing.  Tests and pop quizzes are simply means to that end and should bring us pure joy, because when we’re lacking nothing Satan can’t gain a foothold.

Lord, please reveal to me times when I’ve been impatient, when I’ve let trials weaken my resolve and steal my joy, when I’ve lashed out or withdrawn and disengaged instead of patiently, joyfully persevering.  Lord, I want to be complete in you, lacking nothing.  Amen.

Lord, Teach Us To Pray

One of the misconceptions I had about prayer stemmed from an incomplete understanding of its purpose.  Another misconception had to do with the learning and intentionality required to achieve powerful and effective results.  (James 5:16)  If we think of prayer as “merely” talking to God, we tend to stop short of learning how to pray according to God’s Word.

I find it interesting that of all the things the disciples heard Jesus say and saw Him do, the one thing they asked Him to teach them was how to pray.  (Luke 11:1)  Why not something more awesome like feeding thousands with just a few loaves and fish, calming storms, or raising the dead? 

…why prayer?...

I just read a great book by Dr. Myles Munroe called “Understanding the Power and Purpose of Prayer”.  He suggested several reasons why the disciples wanted to learn how to pray above other things.

In terms of ministry, the disciples saw Jesus praying more than anything else.  The Bible tells us how Jesus was up early, often withdrawing to quiet places to pray.  It sounds like Jesus devoted hours each day to prayer.  His miracles, on the other hand, took mere minutes, seconds even.  Consider the ratio of time spent.  Consider the results.  What a lesson this is for our lives and ministries!

Often we think we’re too busy to pray, especially for hours a day.  Yikes!  But what if 1 hour with God could accomplish hours of work by knowing how to direct our efforts according to His will?  By avoiding all those things He didn’t have planned for us, including false starts and spinning wheels from striving in our own strength?  By having the right mindset of peace, joy, confidence, and courage?  Prayer is meant for us to talk to and hear from God – agreeing with His will, and receiving His wisdom and guidance for carrying it out.  Spending time in prayer actually saves time in the long run.

I’m sure the disciples also recognized how prayer developed intimacy between Jesus and the Father.  We know that Jesus always knew God’s will and did it.  (John 5:19-20)  How often do we spend hours talking about problems with only frustration and weariness as the end result, no solutions?  Societal issues.  The economy.  Healthcare.  The government.  Wayward teenagers.  Addiction.  Those are some pretty big problems.  Maybe we should do less talking and more praying because it’s our prayers that God needs to actually be able to operate in those situations and to use us as well.

We also see in Luke 11:1-4 that prayer doesn’t come automatically, it needs to be learned.  While Jesus was praying, the disciples weren’t, they were just watching and waiting.  They obviously saw something different about Jesus’ prayers and didn’t think they could pray that way on their own, even though they would have grown up praying in their synagogues.  So what did Jesus do?  He taught what we call The Lord’s Prayer to serve as a model.  Jesus taught us because He agrees we need to learn.

I’ve been learning a lot about prayer lately, including that there is a lot to learn – much more than I had originally thought.  But that shouldn’t intimidate us from communicating with our loving Father and Creator; rather it should excite and motivate us to press in deeper!