Daily Scripture:
James 1:13 No one being tempted should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, and God himself tempts no one. 14 Rather, each person is being tempted whenever he is being dragged off and enticed by the bait of his own desire. 15 Then, having conceived, the desire gives birth to sin; and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. 16 Don’t delude yourselves, my dear brothers.
17 Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father who made the heavenly lights; with him there is neither variation nor darkness caused by turning. 18 Having made his decision, he gave birth to us through a Word that can be relied upon, in order that we should be a kind of firstfruits of all that he created. (Complete Jewish Bible).
Romans 12:1 I exhort you, therefore, brothers, in view of God’s mercies, to offer yourselves as a sacrifice, living and set apart for God. This will please him; it is the logical “Temple worship” for you. 2 In other words, do not let yourselves be conformed to the standards of the ‘olam hazeh. Instead, keep letting yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your minds; so that you will know what God wants and will agree that what he wants is good, satisfying and able to succeed. (Complete Jewish Bible).
Reflection Questions: As king, T’Challa learned that the father he had idolized had, in fact, made some serious mistakes. His girlfriend told him, “You can’t let your father’s mistakes define who you are. You get to decide what kind of king you are going to be.” Some Christians assume God sent the problems you face, so you can’t do anything about them. But that is not the Bible’s teaching. Jesus’ half-brother James wrote that our God gives good and perfect gifts, not traumas or temptations. God calls us to “be transformed,” to take responsibility for the kind of people we become.
- James was unequivocal: “No one who is tested should say, ‘God is tempting me!’” When something that strains your faith has happened, have you (or someone else) ever asked, “Why is God doing this?” How can James’ assurance that “Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above” remind you not to blame God for bad things that happen?
- Sooner or later, as we let God transform us we become agents of transformation. In our homes, schools, neighborhoods or workplaces, we start to notice things that aren’t quite as God wants them. What steps, large or small, have you taken to transform attitudes or practices in your settings? Where might you have the chance now to transform things for the better?
Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at Leawood's modern worship services, as well as at the West and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
When I was a kid, I’ll be honest, I got into some trouble. My parents were good about explaining why things were wrong and giving appropriate punishments. But one day, I had a brilliant idea. I did something wrong (at this point, I don’t even remember what it was), and when my mom asked me about it, I told her, “The Devil tempted me.” She was so impressed that I had given a spiritual explanation for my sinful nature that I didn’t get punished. My plan had worked!
Fast-forward a week or two. I did something else wrong. My mom asked me about it and, with a good amount of hubris, I said, “The Devil tempted me!” Well, this time, she was less than impressed and told me what my punishment would be. “But—the Devil tempted me!” No change. “The Devil tempted me! The Devil tempted me!” She wasn’t budging.
The lesson I learned that day was that I was responsible for the choices I made and the consequences they brought, even if I thought they were someone else’s fault. It didn’t do any good to blame the Devil, or my friends, or God for the things I did—for things to get better, what needed to change was me, not someone else.
Much later in life—in college—I learned another lesson. At 18 years old, I had a fairly clear concept of who I was. It was surprising to me that others didn’t always see me that way. There was a gap between who I believed myself to be and who others knew me as, and it really grated on me. It took me a while to admit it, but the reason that gap made me mad was that it was very easy to believe I was a good person, but much harder to actually be a good person. Between my inward identity and my outward identity, it was the outward identity that really defined me as a person, no matter how much I wanted the opposite to be true.
The lesson was that, in taking responsibility for the choices I made, I was also taking responsibility for the person I was becoming. Individual choices matter, but it wasn’t enough to score a few big points with some very visible good choices while letting myself slip in the less visible poor choices. Most people have a bad tendency to look at the very best things they do and base their self-esteem on that while excusing the bad things they do; however, it’s the sum of all of our choices that defines us as people.
Just like we can’t blame others for the poor choices we make, we can’t blame others for not selectively looking at the best things we do while overlooking the bad things we do. There will inevitably be people who misjudge you, but, let’s face it, there will be a lot of people who judge you fairly, even if you disagree with it. We all get to decide what kind of people we will be, but that decision must be backed up by all of our choices—even the ones we don’t like to think about.
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- Or download this week's printable GPS.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
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