Tough Times

 April 19, 2021

When I read, I have to know how things fit together. A novel is more than a collection of random thoughts or story lines. A good novel may have two or three subplots that seem unrelated but come together in the end. The same is true of a good movie or TV show. Linda and I like watching British mysteries where it’s necessary to pay attention to little details that seem to have no purpose. It’s those details that bring the various story lines together into a coherent whole.

This need to fit things together applies to my Bible reading also. The various books of the Bible are not random and unrelated stories. They have a coherency that may be foreign to us in Western 21st century, but it is there, waiting to be ferreted out. Yesterday, pastor Joe began a sermon series on the book of James, and tonight at men’s group, we began a corresponding study of this same book. It doesn’t readily yield its structure; we had to work hard to coax it out of hiding.  

In the first chapter, James begins by talking about enduring tough times, inserts a couple verses about wealth and poverty, then resumes his thoughts about trials and temptations. On the surface, it appears to be a hodge-podge of thoughts written down in a stream of consciousness, but there is more order to it than meets the eye.

In verses 2-8 James speaks of tough times as God’s tools for shaping us into people of character and endurance. He tells us to learn to endure trials because that’s the only way we become all God intends us to be. When tough times come however, we need wisdom to know how to handle them. God doesn’t lead us by the nose; he gives us the freedom to make decisions within the boundaries of the moral, ethical, and spiritual guidelines given in the Scriptures. When making decisions, James tells us to ask for wisdom, and God will give it. We ask in faith, trusting his promise and refusing to second guess our decisions.

Sometimes however, even though we ask for wisdom and make the best decisions we know how to make, things can blow up in our faces. That’s what verses 12-18 are all about. At such times, we’re tempted to blame God for our bad decisions: “I prayed and trusted Jesus. It must have been his will to do this to me to teach me a lesson.” James corrects that kind of thinking. “Let no one say when he is tempted (or goes through trials—the same Greek word is used for testing, trials, and temptations—that God is doing this to me. God doesn’t work that way.” God is the giver of good gifts, James says. In spite of our best intentions and motives, sometimes we miss the mark. It’s not God’s fault; it’s life. We face a difficult situation. We ask God for wisdom. We make a decision. It may work out, in which case God is happy to share the honor with us. It may explode in our faces, but when it does, it isn’t God punishing us. We simply got it wrong, so we confess it and move on (1 John 1:9). 

The most common New Testament word for sin means “to miss the mark.” It is unintentional; we tried our best, but our aim was off or our technique was faulty and we missed the bulls-eye. When we acknowledge our sin, we confess it, receive forgiveness and cleansing, and move on. And if we’ve been paying attention, we actually got a little wiser in the process; God has answered that prayer, just as he said he would. We endured, and are a bit more fit for God’s purposes than before. That’s worth offering a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to our good heavenly Father.