James – Dealing with sin
We are considered rich if we make around $1400 a year when you compare us to the world’s wealth as a whole! So we should not think that this next passage is not for us! We don’t need to go around yelling, “I’m rich, I’m rich!” at this new revelation but, instead, take a few lessons in lament. Wait, what?
Lament, as a noun, is an expression of grief or sorrow for something lost. Whoever is lamenting is expressing great sorrow or regret and even grief about something or someone as in the loss of a life. So, what James is telling us is we need to come down from our self righteousness and humbly considered how you came to be rich. Did you exploit others to get where you are? Did someone lose so you could gain?Does your wealth dictate your confidence and haughtiness to the point you put down others who do not have what you have? Is your goal to only want and work for more? Do you take and not give back?
Our prayer to resolve this state of mind could be, “Lord, break my heart of those things that break your heart.” When we sincerely pray that prayer, listen and wait, God will reveal thoughts and subsequent actions that we have never considered before praying. We might see people who have been exploited, stepped on and need help. We might even see people we used to get ahead ourselves. Yikes.
So, from a different perspective, read the passage as a newly discovered “rich” person. Let’s discover what God is trying to tell all of us through James.
James 5, The Message
Part one
Destroying Your Life from Within1-3 And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment.
4-6 All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.
Bottom line: Use things, not people.
Dear Heavenly Father,
We are monetarily rich in the world’s eyes. We are wealthier in life if we follow and obey Your ways. Let us be rich in You, for you, with you helping us. Help us to think and behave more and more like You each day. Open our eyes, help us to see our sin and repent. Then help us to live well, choose wisely, give back, be blessings and love greatly…like You.
In Jesus Name, Amen
1-2 Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.
SO, HOW DO WE PRAY FOR THOSE OPPRESSED AND AT WAR?
James 3, The Message
Dear Heavenly Father,
Well placed, thoughtful words can also heal, comfort and give value and worth. Words of love expressed at the right time, in the right way, build and deepen relationships. Words can lead people to the Truth of Jesus Christ. Actions that follow those words solidify Truth. James says that none of us get this right every time. That is true, too. We may be thought of as great people…until we open our mouths uncontrollably and let words tumble out that are not appropriate. We need help to control the thoughts that form the words that come tumbling out of our mouths. We need to think first, then speak. 
3-5 A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
19-20 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
So, how do we want to live? Like a corpse or fully alive in Christ? It will take some work in us to listen more closely to the faint whisper of God in us telling us when and where to act upon what we say we believe. But I believe it is worth every effort we make. Learn to listen well. BE still before God each day. Then DO what He says. It’s not complicated. So, don’t complicate it with what we think we ought to do. I want to be God’s friend, don’t you? Die only to self and a relationship with the world. LIVE for Christ, with Christ living in us. THIS is the most important relationship to have and to hold dearly.
Are we influenced by what others say? We independently shout, “no!” But what does our bank account show. Take a look at your checkbook. Where does your money go? Have you ever thought about how you spend your time? Take a few days and keep a running record. Where does the time go?, we ask ourselves. It may shock us. Reflecting on just a few of the ways we manage what God has given to us may reflect the extent of public opinion has on us.
8-11 You do well when you complete the Royal Rule of the Scriptures: “Love others as you love yourself.” But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it. You can’t pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God’s law and ignoring others. The same God who said, “Don’t commit adultery,” also said, “Don’t murder.” If you don’t commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you’re a murderer, period.
As I admire His handwork, I then see a weed. Ugh. I pull it up from the root as my mom taught me, “or it will just grow back”. As I water the plants, I see another weed or two hidden underneath the most beautiful plant I have in the garden. Ugh. I pull it up, trying to get to the root, but it is a tough one. So I go get a shovel so I can dig it up and throw it out. Some weeds take more effort and time. I love gardening but hate the weeds. Weeds, if allowed to grow, ruin the beauty of a magnificent landscape.
19-21 Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
Who are we when things DON”T go as planned? Who are we and how do we react when the unexpected happens that devastates our hearts, minds and even our souls. What is our first reaction? Be honest. James tells us that the level of our maturity of faith, love, and grace is truly measured when we are pressed to the limit, under extreme pressure, like a balloon enlarged to it’s limits and about to burst. What happens when the balloon bursts? Who are we when we are perplexed by life stuff? AND what do we do? 
5-8 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.
When Christian believers gathering churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does. Outsiders, on observing this, conclude that there is nothing to the religion business except, perhaps, business–and dishonest business at that. Insiders see it differently. Just as a hospital collects the sick under one roof and labels them as such, the church collects sinners. Many of the people outside the hos
May God, who puts all things together,
