I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how easy it is to miss the best things for us that God is actively doing right before our eyes when we are too distracted by our fixation on what we want Him to do. When we are looking too closely for what we want God to do we miss what He is actually doing that is always better.
God keeps drawing my focus to the book of James this month as I’m writing these weekly devotions and preparing for our retreat message I will be sharing at the Chapel at Seaside in a few weeks.
For today’s devotional in particular, I’ve been pondering the truths found in James 1-4. A few highlights:
James 1:17: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows". All that is good, lasting and meaningful comes from God, and good things from Him are perfect and unchanging.
James 4:6: "But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'". Humility is the way we were created to live. Originally before sin. Not through pride. Living from God’s grace, understanding that gift, grants us favor through our chosen state of humility.
James 3:17: "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere". Wisdom of this world is quite the contrast to the wisdom from God. Seeing with eyes that pursue God’s wisdom requires frequent surrender and dwelling in God’s presence.
What God is actually doing is so much better than what we are often frantically searching for Him to do. What God created to be ours cannot miss us but our pride and persistence to get what we think is best can certainly delay our receipt of God’s good things for us. What a shame to let any good gift be delayed because we forget to have humble eyes searching for God’s way.
- Britt Goff #wheatfulwednesday
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