James 1:2-5 "A Little Something To Sink Your Teeth Into"

James 1:2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, 3. knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

5. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.

I want to start out by giving you a little background info to help you see where I am coming from. I believe God created me to be a teacher. I started tutoring students when I was in 7th or 8th grade. I have taught all ages…..infants all the way through adults. Teaching is where my heart is. In the next few months we will be studying scripture from the book of James. My desire is to share some of my life experiences in hopes that you can learn from them and not make the same mistakes. I also pray that you find hope in His plan and timing.

Alright..., lets jump in.

Here is a quick review from the last blog:

James is the half brother of Jesus. That means he was the son of Mary and Joseph.

Slave is not used the way we would today. It is not a dark, oppressive treatment of a human being, it is James’ way of saying he has submitted completely to God and is telling all that he is willing to do whatever God asks him to do.

The dispersion of the 12 tribes is the spreading out of the original twelve tribes in all parts. This required a letter to be written and sent out churches and leaders.

Let’s start our focus on verse two:

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials,

The two key words in this scripture are trials and whenever. Notice in this verse it does not say if...it says when. We will all have trials. If we are brave enough to admit it, we understand that every single person is facing a trial of one kind or another.

For several years I have had a tugging at my heart for young women. I know what it is like to navigate this world of heartbreak, uncertainty, and feeling of never enough. I have prayed that God would show my how to be a light in a sometimes very dark world. The one thing God has shown me over and over is that many of you know very well that it is not if but when something bad will happen and you live in that fear every day. You also know that many of your trials come from a source that you don’t even expect...your spouse, a friend who betrays you, or someone who does not even really know you posts something on social media that is very hurtful not just to your feelings but your reputation as well. You get this verse all too well!

What I also feel God has laid on my heart is to help you come up with a plan for when these trials happen.

As an adult educator I was given the opportunity to go to various workplaces and teach. One place I went was a nursing home. I was very blessed to teach there because the owners were believers and managed the home based on Christian principles. I was brought in to help build better relationships between all staff levels. We worked on communication and cooperation in addition to helping them with whatever educational goals.

I had a student named Phyllis. Now, I understand Phyllis sounds like an old lady name but I assure you, Phyllis was not an old lady. She was a young little whipper snapper. I loved teaching when she was in class. She was a nurse’s aid for many years and wanted to go back to school to become a registered nurse. Phyllis was fun! We never knew what she was going to say or do.

One day several minutes after class had started I noticed Phyllis was not there, she was always early. I asked the class if she was off of work that day. They looked at each other and murmured no and kind of kept doing their writing assignment.

A few minutes later Phyllis walked in. She had her head down but I could tell she had been crying. After she was seated and settled, I walked over to her, and positioned myself so no one else could see her face and quietly asked her if she was okay. She burst into tears…..

Now….remember… I am here to help build better relationships between staff members. I took a look around and all of the other students did not seem interested at all. Their lack of concern made me a little more than ticked.

I made a mental note of this and focused on Phyllis.

I finally got her calm enough to explain what had happened early that day. The lead nurse had told her to clean all of the patients’ false teeth first thing that morning. Phyllis explained that she got one of the metal trays that they used to carry meds and collected all of the patients’ teeth. She then took them and cleaned them to the best of her ability. She was quite proud of the job she had done. She placed all of the teeth back on the tray and proceeded to take them back to the patients. When she got to the first room it hit her…………...she had not labeled any of the teeth. She had NO idea who each of the sets of teeth belonged to.

Now...another side note.. I can see her fellow classmates trying really hard not to laugh. It hits me…..they knew all along what had happened and were waiting for her to tell her story. They WERE being supportive of their fellow classmate. Now I feel guilty and my future lesson has changed a bit.)

At this point Phyllis did not know if she would still have a job let alone be able to finish her schooling and become a registered nurse. You see, she jumped into the situation without a plan. She had all of the right intentions! She knew she wanted to do a great job, but she did not think about the how.

Let’s go back to the scriptures.

James 1:2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, 3. knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

The next set of important words are: testing and faith. The testing of your faith produces endurance. Phyllis faced a pretty big trial of her own making. However, I can tell you that Phyllis learned a great deal about herself through that ordeal. She realized just how impulsive she could be and how that could prove to be very dangerous in the lives of her future patients.

Phyllis could have very easily turned that situation into a poor me story or used it to convince herself that she did not have what it took to be a nurse, But, Phyllis placed her faith in God and used her trial as a story of triumph and it helped her to mature in ways she never could have imagined.

Friends…...your faith will be tested…...do you have a plan?

Let’s go back to the scriptures.

James 1:2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, 3. knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

The key word here is endurance. Now, how many of you think Phyllis went on and lived happily ever after? Nope, she did not! Even after she turned the situation over to God…..she still had to face the consequences of the situation.

Now, have you skimmed over the above writing to see if I tell you what Phyllis did with the teeth? Well, skim no longer! I kid you not…...she had no choice but to have the patients put each set of teeth in their mouth to see if they were the right ones. If they did not fit, she had to clean them again and again until she found who they belonged to.

Phyllis also had to face the many family members who were very upset. Can you imagine visiting your sweet granny and hearing her tell of a story of how she was asked to put multiple sets of teeth in her mouth earlier that day! Phyllis was forced to face the consequences of her actions over and over again.

I am very happy to say that instead of going with the mindset of why me, I am not good enough, etc, she called on God to help her work through it. Now, Phyllis did not realize what she was doing at the time, she just prayed each and every day that God would give her the strength to get through the situation. She pushed through the trials because she put her faith in God and believed that no matter how many times she messed up or no matter how many trials she faced, God would be there for her. You see, God can clean up our mess and use it to teach us the lesson we need to learn for future situations. Throughout this whole entire situation, Phyllis was building her endurance. She was building the ability to have faith in God no matter what.

Through these scripture we know that:

It is not if but WHEN trials will come.

We know that our Faith will be tested,

And, we know that faith produces endurance.

So, I ask you…..what is your plan? What is your plan when someone comes at you sideways? What is your plan when you are attacked on social media? What is your plan when that person who always has something negative to say to you goes a little further than usual. What is your plan when your boyfriend or girlfriend wants you to do things you know are not what you should be doing? What are you going to do when someone you love and respect asks you to do something you know is wrong?

What is your plan?

Let’s go back to the Scripture to see what God wants us to do.

James 1:5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.

The key words here are ASK God. Before we can come up with a plan we need to see WHO we are going to seek when we have a trial. When you face a trial or when you need help with something…….do you take that situation to God? Or, do you pick a friend whom you know will tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear?

I ask again…..what is your plan?