Day #67

Begin this time in prayer.

Do you know why we study God’s Word?  It is not to check something off of a list, so we can feel like we’ve accomplished a goal for the day.  It’s not even like rubbing a genie lamp, hoping somehow that if you read it that everything you face after reading it will be a breeze.  Finally, reading God’s Word does not make it where you will never struggle with sin again.

So what does it do?  The better we know the Bible, the more God can encourage us and others through us, in the toughest and darkest moments of life.  The day will come when what we have will fade.  As we have studied the past few days, our riches don’t last.  Even people don’t last.  It is in those days, all that we have read, studied, memorized, and proved from our time spent with Him will be what gets us through the roughest of moments.

Romans 15:4

“For everything that was written in the past, was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Please read James 5:7-12.

For the next several days we will be spending time on these verses.

In James 5:1-6, we learned about the mistreatment of the poor laborers by the greedy rich.  Remember how the poor laborers had nothing with which to fight against these oppressive rich folks?  No matter where they turned, the rich man would take them down.  If you missed these lessons, please click on the following days to catch up on this important learning… Day #62 and Day #63.

In spite of all this abuse, the poor were PRAYERFUL THROUGH THEIR TROUBLES.  Their cries were heard by the Lord. 

Please read James 5:7-8.

As the poor were suffering through their unjust treatment, James charges them to be patient in all things.  He is telling them that at the 2^nd coming of Christ, that Christ will right all the wrongs done to them. 

Do you hear this?  There is great learning here for us when we are treated unfairly.  Sometimes, when we are mistreated by others, we want justice and quick!  We want the culprits of this mistreatment to have punishment and we want to see it!  We want them to be found out, right?  But, what if we don’t ever get this satisfaction?  Will we still trust and serve the Lord? 

The reason that I ask this, is because of what James said to be patient for?  Read James 5:7-8 once more.  James said to wait for the coming of the Lord… the 2^nd coming of the Lord!  Has that even happened until this day?  NO!  So these folks never saw the justice they so prayed for.  But, it is certain to come when Christ returns.

Now, I am not saying that justice does not happen right now in this present time that you and I live.  People’s sins do find them out, wrongs do get exposed, and God does bring down the haughty and the prideful.  BUT… sometimes, God chooses to wait.  For whatever reason… sometimes our MAGNIFICENT and HOLY God chooses to wait.  And what He does, is best.

It is in these times of waiting for justice, that we can lose heart or even hope that God is real.  We want things done in our timing… RIGHT NOW!  For this very reason, is why this quiet time today was started with encouragement in continuing to read, study, memorize, and prove GOD’s Holy Word.

You may or may not even be struggling with injustice right now.  That is all the more reason to continue to spend time with the Lord in preparation of the day that you will.  God does test (not tempt) the believer.  He can do this through allowing us to be mistreated by others.  Be prepared for this by hiding yourself in His Word daily.  You can’t afford to put something else ahead of this another day.

TARGET of the DAY

Lift of up your eyes and talk with the Lord.