Focus

As you quiet yourself for this brief time, be willing to be open to God in whatever way that may take place.

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Read

James 4:8-17 (NRSV)

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

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Reflect

Humility… what is that again? We seem to see so little of it these days. It does not take long after watching the news, reading a newspaper, or scrolling through social media to see those we call “servants,” either civil or in the church, boasting of their achievements and congratulating their ideas; all while shutting others out. These verses all essentially deal with humility. We are to be humble in our ideas, convictions and theologies. We are to humble ourselves before God. We are not to speak untruths about others. We are to avoid the act of judging others. We are not to presume what tomorrow will bring, for we are a mist in all of creation.

Humility seems to be the key. With humility comes the ability to be, to listen, to share, and to learn. With humble hearts we are able to see others in the light of Christ, as God sees them. With humble hearts we don’t jump to conclusions about others and their situations. With humble hearts, we approach God and allow God to melt us, mold us, fill us, and use us. May it be so.

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Pray

Giver of life and Sustainer of breath, grant us humble spirits. May we always seek your way and your will. May your spirit bring to our attention those places in our lives where we need to be humble. Amen.

Go with God.