Don’t Give Up, Strengthen Your Resolve!

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Voice – James 5:7-8): ⁷ For this reason, my brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the return of the Lord. Look! The farmer knows how to wait patiently for the land to produce vegetables and fruits. He cannot harvest a freshly planted seed. Instead, he waits for the early and the late showers to nourish the soil. ⁸ You need this same kind of patience, so in the meantime, strengthen your resolve because the Lord will be coming soon.

THOUGHTS: One of the toughest things in life is 'to wait'! Imagine in a written test when you finish first – you sit worried about whether you must have barreled into the test and possibly missed the point. In picking up someone from the airport and you arrive early – you may tend to beat up on yourself for not having gone the speed limit and possibly been more kind to those drivers who just seemed to have poked along. In Christendom we may tend to do something similar – we may become impatient with those who are struggling to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ, or we may lose identity with the unsaved and therefore be challenged to understand their reasoning for delaying their salvation decision. Similarly, for those who easily meet all the bills and have lots of extra to do all those things that some of us can only dream about, they may tend to look down their noses and find many reasons why someone is possibly struggling financially. I believe that James is telling us that, in life we have choices and each of those should really lead towards the ultimate goal of spending eternity in heaven with our Father God, and many saints that have gone on before us. Meanwhile, we each have a personal responsibility – one that applies only to our heart and our life – how can we draw even closer to God? How can we do even more towards our relationship with God and all those that He loves? Try looking at a groom waiting for his bride to walk the isle, he is either in deep thought about what he might do to make his bride more proud of him, or how much more can he do to provide for their wellbeing and happiness, or even what else can he smooth over in his appearance at that moment to look his very best for his bride. So it is with saints of God, while we wait for our 'BIG DAY' when we shall see our Savior face to face, we are to be patiently striving to be more like Him; trying to be His hands extended to those around us, by blessing the rich and/or the poor; we are to be deeper into the Word than ever before as we build anticipation of seeing Jesus! Friends, there's no time to coast along, or get impatient, or even feel like an over-achiever, for we are to be busy about the Master's work and never give up. Constantly working towards being more like Jesus – the author and finisher of our faith. Let us therefore strengthen our resolve to be as much like Jesus as we can; yearn for His Word daily, ask Him to grant you faith, knowledge and wisdom to be more like Him in every way. Constantly remind yourself and sing.. 'You're the One I live for Jesus', and look forward to pleasing every day!

PRAYER: Thank You Lord God for providing the means to salvation! Thank You for reaching deep into my heart and convicting me of my sin, causing me to surrender my life to You. Having heard the call by James, I humbly plead with You dear Lord, to touch the hearts of my readers and myself to never think more of ourselves than we are, to never look down on others, but to constantly look for ways to offer a 'hand-up' to them. Please help us to look at their soul and not their circumstances dealt to them by this cruel and selfish world. Please help us to never be anxious about tomorrow, while still keeping our eye, and our goal on the prize that lies ahead of us. Your Word is clear, that we are to strengthen our resolve to be more like You every day, as we prepare for that great union with You in glory! Oh, What A Day that Will be, when my Jesus I shall see!! Praise the wonderful name of Jesus! I humbly place these petitions at Your feet oh Lord, for it's in Your magnificent name that I ask all this, AMEN!

 

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or read through Biblical truths on How To Know Jesus, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day's devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!