Is This My Life!

You know how life just slaps you in the face sometimes?  Well, I got one of those out of the blue the other day.  Was just sitting outside minding my own business and whop!


Where does this stuff come from?  Is the devil taking advantage of my idol mind?  Is this something that I actually thought of?  Is God testing me?  Or is this just one of those unexplainable happenings?  And why does it even matter?


Well I can answer the last question.  It matters because it was in my head and I want to reason it out.  By the way, sometimes the slap is physical & sometimes mental.  This one was mental.  Suddenly, without warning, the statement 'is this what I want to do with my life' just popped in my head.  And it sounded like a statement not a question.  Weird huh?


So I've been comtemplating on the first part of the book of James.  James 1:1 - "when you fall into various trials."  Not 'if' but "when".  This tells me trials will come.


Then looking down to James 1:13 - "let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone."  So temptation is evil, but God can't be evil or do evil to us.


Then the next verse 14 tells me that temptation comes from being drawn into my own desires.  So the devil didn't make me do it.  I've always thought we gave him too much credit.  But look at verse16 and notice "Do not be deceived".  Does this refer to satan as the deceiver or to us deceiving ourselves?  I think the latter.  If so, then we have to point at ourselves when we fall into temptation which leads to sin.


Verse 17 is very reassurring to me.  All good and perfect gifts are from God.  And God doesn't change.  Numbers 23:19 says "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent."


It's interesting to me that the book of James is being written "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad" who, if I'm not mistaken, were all lost in history except for two.

Just a thought.