Waiting on God doesn’t meant just sitting there doing nothing.

Waiting on God doesn’t mean sleeping through it.

Waiting on God actually means being ON ASSIGNMENT BY GOD and fulfilling our assigned responsibilities on earth. It means be faithful.

We are in the last chapter of James (I know you’re like…already!!), but yes, this short powerful book of the Bible only has 5 chapters and every day, James has given it to us straight, no chaser and today is no different.

I’m going to run down the points that resonated with me and I’d love to hear which ones resonated with you! But before I do that, while reading James, there is a Q&A in my Tony Evans Study Bible and it talks about how to deepen your prayer life. I actually want to start off with those points:

1. Prayer is an important part of accessing God’s power.

2. Prayer is our communication vehicle given to us by God to connect with Him.

3. Prayer is going to God; recognizing WHO He is through praise and worship; communicating what we need; ensuring my specific requests line up with God’s expectations; giving God PERMISSION to do above and beyond what I ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

4. Prayer is making a specific request to God, but always submitting my requests to God’s will. I love how Philippians 4:6 says it in the Passion Translation: Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life.

5. God’s Will is ALWAYS better than my requests.

Once we truly understand the power of prayer, it allows us to be non-negotiable about our prayer time with the Father first thing in the morning.

Now let’s jump into James 5:

• Don’t be storing up no treasures here on earth. We should be storing up treasures in heaven. Where our treasures are, that’s where our heart is (Matthew 6:19-21).

• God condemns economic injustice in the workplace. So if you know you’re not being paid right, take that to God and let Him handle it His way.

• Patience is not just sitting around doing nothing, we got to be working for God.

• Prayers offered in faith will provide divine encouragement in the midst of problems.

• A sinful lifestyle results in weakness and suffering.

• If we will deal with our sins, we will see God work in our lives.

• My Christianity is real when I see a brother or sister in Christ backsliding and I act in love. What I can’t do, is ignore it and be all passive about it.

• God says we have the power to intercept straying Christians on the road to spiritual misery.

• Love covers ALL offenses (that’s actually Proverbs 10:12), so when we show love to our neighbors as ourselves, we are not only following God’s command but we are also helping a straying Christian when we show them love verses judgement.

• Believers can be used of God to provide a covering for past sins and lead an erring brother or sisters to restoration! Now you really doing something when you lead a person to restoration.

I have said it before and I will say it again, the book of James has so much in these 5 chapters!! Let us be encouraged to not just speed through it (talking to myself more than you), but to take the scriptures that stood out and really resonate, and study them even more; so that we can remember them when we need them most. Holy Spirit helps us with that memory work. But we can’t remember what we never read or heard. So get into the Word! Hallelujah!

Let us continue to ride with God through the vehicle He gave to us called prayer!

P.S. I’m in that new 2020 vehicle that God blessed me with (no seriously, He really did bless me with a new vehicle in 2020 during a whole pandemic). Praise God!!!!

SALVATION PRAYER

If you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and you’re not a believer, but you have a desire to be, all you have to do is openly confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). When you pray that prayer, you are saved. Get connected with a good, bible-based church in your community, stay connected to other believers, and start having daily conversations through prayer with God every single day. Welcome to your new life with Jesus Christ!!!

ASSIGNMENTS

1. What did Holy Spirit say to you in your conversation with Him this morning?

2. Are you ready to fully surrender every area of your life and ride with God through eternity?

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