James 1:12-18 Persevere

James 1:12-18
"Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord 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 by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures."

Do you ever look at life like it is a game? I think we should. When we play games we are actually focused on the end throughout the whole game. When we pass go to collect $200 dollars we don't throw that money into worthless places, we plan and use it to buy just the right properties so we can win in the end. When we have setbacks we don't give up, we keep trying until the game is over. We exhibit in our play the perseverance that is required to live out our Christian life. As we go through life we should have the end of the "game" in sight. Looking forward to our prize, the crown of life. Salvation. Victory is ours in Jesus Christ.

This passage even gives us a step by step game time instructions for avoiding those temptations that take our eyes off the endgame. First we are given a warning - "temptation is not from God." The truth is temptation is not even from Satan, it is from ourselves. We are "carried away and enticed" by our own lust. Those things we desire. Sex, money, food, whatever. We want them. We begin to focus on them, suddenly they are everywhere. We just want to sample them, but then we get carried away. We sin. Our lust gives birth to sin. The practical side of this should be simple and clear. If you lust after something in particular pray that God would take away that lust. Go a step further and avoid those things that you lust after. If you can remove or avoid the lust you will overcome the temptation. If you fail the end result is death. Remember "the wage of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).

The contrast is made here that God only gives good gifts. This is how we recognize where God is in our circumstances. Those good things, things that do not entice us and carry us away to sin are from God. The cool thing about this game of life is that the guy who designed it desires for us to win. He has planted free parking, and good chance cards throughout so that we can persevere. So we can win. For the believer who perseveres we have victory. We win. "In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth." It is the will of God that we win.

Perseverance is an unbelievably difficult task unless you remember what the goal of life is - SALVATION!