[FEBRUARY 19] If Day

Read: James 1:1-11

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience" 

--James 1:2-3

February 19, 1942, was a fascinating day for Canada. It was “If Day”—a World War II staging of a fake Nazi invasion of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The intent was to show what it would be like “if” Canada fell under the harsh occupation of Nazi forces, and so that Canadians would support the war effort more fully.

As one person described the event: “If Day brought home the reality of Nazi occupation. Manitobans got a very bitter taste of nearly every aspect of Nazi brutality.” The key word there is nearly. While “If Day” was a valiant attempt to educate people about danger in the world, it could not begin to recreate the actual suffering that was sweeping Europe.

Real trials in life are not ifs—they are whens. In fact, life’s most profound lessons cannot simply be observed, they must be experienced. It is there, in actual seasons of heartache and loss, that we gain greater insights into life, faith, and our need of God. To that end, James wrote, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3).

Trials come because we live in a broken world, but we decide if we will learn the lessons taught. There are no “ifs” about it—it is an important way to grow. --Bill Crowder
 

Though you cannot see the outcome,
Trust the Lord--HE knows what's best;
Be assured He sees your trial,
And He's with you in your test. --Hess

REFLECT ON THIS:
Tough times can teach us to trust.

[FEBRUARY 11] The Other Side

Read: James 4:13-17

"What is your life? It is even a vapor" 

--James 4:14

When someone said to my friend, “See you in a year,” it sounded odd when he replied, “Yes, see you on the other side.” He meant that he’d see him on the other side of a one-year deployment for the US Navy. But because the phrase is often used of heaven, it made me think about the uncertainty of life. I wondered, Who will be here in another year? Who might by then be on the other side—in heaven?

We certainly don’t know what the next year—or hour—will bring. In his epistle, James wrote about this uncertainty. He rebuked the greedy merchants for boasting about what they would do that day, the next day, or even the next year (4:13). Their sin wasn’t that they were making plans; it was forgetting God and arrogantly boasting about those business plans.

James reminded them: “What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (v.14). Commentator Peter Davids says that James was pointing out their foolishness and saying, in essence, “Come now, you who make plans—you don’t even understand how little control you have over life itself.”

No part of life is outside the control of God. So when we make plans, we need to remember, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that” (v.15). --Anne Cetas

Tomorrow's plans I do not know,

I only know this minute;

But He will say, "This is the way,
By faith now walk ye in it." --Ryberg

REFLECT ON THIS:

Write your plans in pencil and let God have the eraser.

[FEBRUARY 3] What Will I Do?

Read: James 1:21-25

"Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" 

--James 1:22

A man who has been my mentor and friend for many years often says that his goal in studying the Bible is always personal application. I appreciate his emphasis on putting learning into practice, because it’s too easy for those of us who study, discuss, teach, and write about the Bible to take a merely intellectual approach to the Word.

Oswald Chambers said: “There is a danger with the children of God of getting too familiar with sublime things. We talk so much about these wonderful realities, and forget that we have to exhibit them in our lives. It is perilously possible to mistake the exposition of the truth for the truth; to run away with the idea that because we are able to expound these things, we are living them too.”

James reminds us that the person “who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (1:25). The key issue is not what is preached or written, but what is done.

When I study God’s Word, my first question should not be, “What am I going to say about this?” but “What am I going to do about this?” --David McCasland

We take delight to teach God's Word,

We say, "Amen, it's true!"

But it's of little use to us

Unless His will we do. --D. De Haan

REFLECT ON THIS: 

One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it. —Chambers