The Road to Perfect and Complete
Bayless Conley
I want us to focus our attention today on James 1:2-4,
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
What I want to look at today is how God seeks to bring us to maturity by building patience into our lives. If there is one thing I have learned in my Christian walk, it is that God is not in as much of a hurry as I am!
Now, what is patience? Patience is the long-lasting quality of your faith. If you let go of your patience, your faith falls to the floor.
The end result God is looking for is that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. The word perfect here means mature. God is developing maturity in us by working on our patience.
I have a dear friend who has a great church. They endeavored to build another building on their property and it ended up being a major undertaking. In fact, it turned out to be the most difficult thing he had ever done. I mean, it took a strip out of his hide.
Eventually it got built, but you know what my friend says about it? He says, "You see that building? I didn't build that building. It built me."
Going through those trials, facing those difficulties, having his faith tested, having to trust God when it seemed like there was a lack of finances, having to hold onto God's Word when he was a laughing stock with some people, all of that built character in him as he stood the test.
I have a question for you: Has anything been building you lately? If so, rejoice, because God is working maturity in you!
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No More Nagging
Girlfriends In God
Today’s Truth
“The prayer of a righteous person is
powerful and effective,” (James 5:16 TNIV).
Friend to Friend
There are some verses in the Bible that
I wish God had just left out. Here are a few of them:
- A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping. (Proverbs 19:13)
- A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand. (Proverbs 27:15,16)
- Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife. (Proverbs 21:19)
- Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. (Proverbs 25:24)
OK, that’s about all I can take right now. When I wrote the book, Becoming the Woman of His Dreams, I surveyed and interviewed
men about what they longed for in a wife. One thing that men repeatedly
mentioned was their aversion to nagging. Drip, drip, drip. Webster defines
nagging as to scold or find fault with repeatedly, to cause annoyance by
scolding or repetition. Interestingly, a nag is also an inferior or
aged horse. The best remedy to cure ourselves from being a nagging wife, or
a nagging mother, or a nagging friend, is to become a praying woman. Jesus
invites us to stop nagging our husbands (and others) and begin nagging God!
Here’s what Jesus had to say:
"Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to
him at midnight and says, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a
friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before
him.'
"Then the one inside answers, `Don't bother me.
The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up
and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the
bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up
and give him as much as he needs.
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone
who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be
opened. (Luke 11:5-9).
In the Greek, the words ask, seek, and knock are present
participle verbs. The more correct translation would read, ask and keep on
asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. God invites us to
be persistent in our prayers. We can give our worries and cares to God and leave
it up to Him to do the rest. “Cast all your cares on the LORD and He will
sustain you,” (Psalms 55:22). “Cast all your anxiety on Him for He cares for
you,” (1 Peter 5:7). If you are married, remember, you don’t want to be your
husband’s mother…you want to be the woman of his dreams.
Let’s Pray
Dear Lord, I confess that sometimes I nag my
husband…alright, maybe more than sometimes. But Lord, I am determining in my
heart to stop nagging my husband and start being consistent and persistent in
prayer. My husband is Your workmanship, not mine. Forgive me when I try to yank
the paint brush from Your hand and create brushstrokes of my own. I pray that I
can be the woman that he needs in order to become the man that You
desire.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Now It’s Your Turn
What do you think a nag sounds
like?
Do you ever nag your husband or other significant people in your life?
If there are things that you tend to nag your husband about, try this - write
them down on a piece of paper, turn the list over to God, and then turn off the
leaky faucet. Give it a try. You might be surprised!
Nagging just seems to come natural for most of us girls. But God calls us to live super-naturally. If your marriage could use a bit of freshening up, take a look at Sharon’s book, Becoming the Woman of His Dreams. And if it that little but powerful muscle called the tongue that needs an overhaul, see her book, The Power of a Woman’s Words. It is up to us to turn off that leaky faucet for good!
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1 comment:
excellent points to ponder, Charlotte
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