I was studying the book of James and wanted to share this with you!

James (New Living Translation)

James 1
Greetings from James
1 This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

James is the writer of the book of James. There is no proof as to which James this is. Many say that it is the brother of Jesus. We do know that he was a slave or servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only his servanthood to the Lord Jesus Christ that matters to him here, for this is the theme of his letter: How shall we live as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ?

And then he goes onto say…
I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad.
Greetings!
History tells us that this was written in Jerusalem for the Jewish Christian audience around 46 to 48 AD. During this time they were scattered all over the place because of fanaticism (meaning to be a fanatic about something) was tearing Jerusalem into pieces. Meaning that some jews were putting to much into things other than God and Jesus.
Elaborate on the meaning of being a fanatic….
Through out the book of James we see one constant lesson being taught. Patients. Patients under provocation. Patience under oppression. Patience under persecution. Patience in waiting for the coming of our Lord and Savior. The waiting for the coming of the Lord should be the grounds for our patience.
To have faith and endurance you must have patience.
In the book of James we are also taught that there is justification through faith and works and that faith apart from works is barren. The body apart from the Spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.
If you are going to talk the talk you had better walk the walk. We see this with Abraham when he offered his son to God and we also see this with Rahab when she sent the messengers out a different way.
Here we go, let’s start with verse 2
Faith and Endurance
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Do you think that a marathon runner just went out and started running 26 miles one day? Or that an Olympic swimmer just started swimming 8 lengths of the pool right off the bat? Do you think that a weight lifter just started lifting 800 pounds. No. They had to train. They had to work at it. They had to build up their endurance. They had to endure pain in order to strengthen themselves. They also had to have patience in reaching their goal. They had faith that by working hard their endurance would get stronger. They knew that the harder they worked at it the better they would get. There comes a time when an athlete has to push past a point where he just wants to quit. It is like a wall. But if you push past this wall you will get what is called a second wind and be able to continue on until you hit that wall again.

That is the same thing with us and our faith. When our faith is tested we must have patience. There will be times when we hit that wall or times when we are in pain. We must remember that this test, this pain, this trial will increase our endurance. By increasing our endurance we increase our faith. And during all of this we are showing our faith by our works. How we act during the time when we are going through a trial shows a non believer how Jesus can work in their life. It also helps us to gain more love, faith and hope.

So many times in the Bible it actually states that we are running a race and God is encouraging us to win;
Psalm 19:5It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding.It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.
1 Corinthians 9:24Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!
Galatians 5:7You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?
Philippians 2:16Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.
Hebrews 12:1[ God’s Discipline Proves His Love ] Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
In Hebrews 12:1 we see that God has set before us a race and that we must run with endurance. This is another gift that God will give us if we work for it. God will give us the endurance that we need to run the race. Most important, God will help us win. Here we see God’s love for us again. He does not want us to loose this race. He wants us to win. This is not a race to see who actually comes in first place. I believe that this is more like the special Olympics where a parent is cheering their child on to finish the race. It doesn’t matter to them if they won or lost. They are excited to be running the race and to finish the race. It takes great endurance just to finish the race and not quit. If the runner falls, they get back up and keep running. I see God and Jesus just cheering us on like no other parent has ever done. And when we fall, He runs over to us and helps us get back up so that we can continue the race.
1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.
There is so much more to talk about. I encourage you to study the book of James on your own. Let’s move onto verse 19.


Listening and Doing
19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
Wow, quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger…
Man, that says a lot right there.
When was the last time that you really just listened to someone talk. I don’t mean to just sit there patiently waiting for them to finish so you could speak. I mean to truly listen to what they had to say.
If we just slow down and take the time to listen. Then take a minute, the Lord will keep us calm and give us the words. If we truly take the time to listen it will help us to get rid of the anger that might come out if we are quick to speak.
Some times we just need to listen and not speak at all. You might be listening to someone that is going through a lot and just needs someone to listen.
God is a perfect example of this. You pray. He listens. Does he answer your prayer before you get done praying? Does he answer your prayer in His time?
Did he answer your prayer?
Sometimes instead of praying we just need to sit and listen for God. Take some quite time to just let God talk to us.
Onto verse 26
26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

In Conclusion:
(I am going to read this just how I got it off the Internet. I tried to put it into my own words but it lost something.)
In this first chapter of the biblical text we have found the thrust of James's entire letter: calling upon Christians to live with moral urgency, serious holiness and unconditional obedience to the word of God. By putting the two halves of the chapter together we also establish the context for the moral earnestness of the entire letter: complete confidence in and reliance upon the grace of God. James is so earnest for moral purity in 1:19-27 because of the theology he has taught in 1:1-18. It is the thorough purity of God (never tempted, never tempting, never changing) that calls us to holiness; it is the generous giving of God (giving wisdom without finding fault, giving the crown of life, giving every good and perfect gift, giving us birth) that moves us to holiness. Furthermore, going back to the very beginning of James's message, this pursuit of holiness is not an oppressive burden but a task of joy, because of the great worth of the goal that God's grace has made possible. God has called Christians to become mature and complete, as first fruits of all he created. This is so high a calling and so valuable an attainment that we may consider even trials along the way pure joy!

Questions:
1. When was the last time that you hit that wall and needed faith and endurance to get you through? Did you grow in faith because of you endurance? Or did you gain endurance because of your faith? Or both?

2. Do you take the time to just listen to God? Share a time when you saw God’s work because you truly listened and were slow to speak?