Day 208/260: Read James 3

Where is your focus? Why do you do what you do? Are you trying to thrive financially, and if so, to what end? One’s motivation is extremely important. James warns against “bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts.” If you are concerned with the amount of money in the bank because you want more, more, more, then your focus is in the wrong place.

We must seek the things of God with a view to “the wisdom that is from above,” for that wisdom “is first pure, the peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” It is different than the “earthly, sensual, demonic” wisdom to which man typically subscribes.

Our existence does not consist only of this life. Our souls will continue past the expiration date of our bodies. Thus, we must focus on things that will benefit our souls, and not just satisfy “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Why? Because “the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who doe the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

Where is your focus? “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2).

Memory (Fill in the blanks)

James 1:22. But be doers of the ________________, and not hearers only, ________________ yourselves.

Pray

Pray for spiritual success, turning to God’s wisdom revealed in the Scriptures for guidance.