Lessons From JamesSample

DEVOTIONAL

For many of us, our closest friendships are the friends that we make at school. Not only do you spend 5 days a week with these friends, but you may even hang out after school and could even see each other at the weekends too. These friends become very close and you might even start acting similarly - can you think of anyone like that in your life? As Christians we should look different to the world, right? But it can be easy to be an undercover Christian so to speak - especially when your friends aren’t Christians and might not share a lot of the similar values that you do. After all, you can become like who you hang out with.

In today’s chapter, James warns us against living like the world. Sometimes the world can be a place where people are jealous of each other. This leads to quarrels and fights and sometimes in extreme cases even murder (v. 2). On one hand we physically live in the world but on the other, we know that through knowing Jesus our lives are leading towards eternal life with God. The passage tells us that friendship with the world makes us enemies with God (v. 4) - yikes! Now James isn’t saying we can’t have friends who aren’t Christian. What he is saying is that if we are choosing to follow God he has to come first - he won’t compete for the top spot in our hearts. What kind of things do you put before God? Is it popularity and other people's opinion? Is it your favorite singer? Is it money and wealth? Is it your education? There are many more things we may choose, but ultimately idolizing those things will distract us from our relationship with God.

So how do we keep God on the top spot? Just like spending time with friends, spending time with God influences our actions and our thoughts to reflect Him more. And from that place of intimacy with God, we can flee from evil and falling into the temptations of the world (v. 7). The more we seek God, the more his way will influence us.

QUESTIONS

• Q: What does your daily time with God look like at the moment?
• Q: How can you spend more time consistently with God each week?

PRAYER

Dear God, I am sorry for anything I’ve put before you. Today I choose to fall into friendship with you, putting you first before anything else.

Amen