James 1:1

New American Standard Version

James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.

Pastor’s Paraphrase

          This letter to you is from James, one called to serve God and the Lord Jesus Christ – to all the Jewish Christians who have been forced from their homes and scattered throughout the land. I greet all of you from my heart.

 “How does this help me become more like Him?”

          One of the things I love most in life is going home after a long and tiring day.  Though I love the work God has given me to do and take great joy in it and I love the opportunities that I have to travel, there is no place on earth I would rather be than at home with my family.  I feel, as I’m sure most of you do, that home is a place of security, comfort, and peace.  It is a safe haven in a tumultuous and uncertain world.

          I cannot imagine being forced away from home and becoming a refugee.  From those who were displaced from their homes by the hurricanes of 2005 to those who are political refugees around the world, our hearts go out to them.  Even more unimaginable would be to be displaced from our homes because of our faith in Christ.  We enjoy such freedom to worship and serve our Lord as we choose that to be persecuted, much less driven away from our homes because of our faith, does not even occur to us.

          Yet, this is exactly what had happened to those early Jewish believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  They had experienced such threat and persecution that they had been forced to flee their homes and all that had been comfortable and secure in their lives.  They had been called on to trust in Christ alone and to be willing to abandon those physical and material things that we so easily take for granted.  James, their pastor in the church in Jerusalem, was writing to these “scattered sheep” of the Lord’s flock to encourage and instruct them in this difficult time of testing in their lives.

          Perhaps we never know how deep our commitment to Christ is until we are asked to surrender something we hold dear and of great value.  Corrie Ten Boom, whose family during World War II hid Jewish families from the Nazis and was eventually thrown in a German “death camp”, said in reflection on how the experience had changed her outlook on life, “I have learned to hold all things in life loosely.  If I don’t, it hurts when God pries my fingers off of them.”

          There is no greater example of one who was willing to relinquish what He had than our Lord Himself.  He left the riches of Heaven’s throne to have no home or possessions.  He was willing to place everything in the Father’s hands to accomplish His purpose of redemption.  If we are going to live more like Him, we too must hold things loosely and always remember that all that we have and all that we are belong to Him. 

          We must never forget that our possessions and our very lives are His to do with as He pleases.  Should He ask us for anything we have, we should not hold on to it like a child but release it to the One from which it came.  We are to be grateful and free to enjoy the possessions that He chooses to bless our lives with but we must be sure that they do not possess us.

“How should I pray for Him to change my life?”

Ask the Lord to help you be grateful for your home and all material possessions that you have been given but to also be willing to relinquish whatever He would ask.  Thank Him today for your home but pray that He would help you to understand that your real home is in Heaven.  Pray that He would give you grace to enjoy material blessings without becoming so attached to them that they would become obstacles to a complete commitment to Him.