Happy Thursday!

Prayer: “Heavenly Father, please give me Your wisdom and grace throughout this day. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I may be pleasing to You in all my ways. Thank you for using me as a reflection of Your glory! In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

James 3: 17-18 “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

My meditation tonight gave a brief history lesson from James. This book is generally thought of as being written by James, the half brother of Jesus. Since James grew up with Jesus he saw Jesus in each way siblings see each other. James did not believe Jesus was who He claimed to be until Jesus appeared to him after the resurrection. James then had a major change of heart and put his faith in Jesus and then assumed leadership in the Jerusalem church.

As James saw Jesus as a person he was able to recall just how Jesus acted in all situations. What James saw in Jesus was His wisdom. James describes the wisdom of Jesus as “peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

I have been teaching the first graders in my class about plants and seeds. One of the children asked, “How does the seed know what to do?” I so wanted to say, because God made it that way, but instead I responded that in each seed is all that seed needs to know what to do. It comes equipped to know when to sprout, leaf and bear fruit. But if the seed is not tended to then the seed will lay in the ground and die.

James knew that God gave us the Holy Spirit to bear the same qualities of wisdom as within the life of Jesus. For these gifts to come into fruition we must focus everything we do on our walk with Christ. Let us not allow this gift of extraordinary wisdom to lay in the ground and die. Ask God for opportunities to share His wisdom that is planted in each of us. This wisdom will not just be zapped down on us without us being prepared how to use it because just like any good teacher (and Jesus was the best!) Jesus will teach us to use this gift of wisdom.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Please continue to pray for each other and me. Remember we are all fighting some sort of battle. Love you all so much, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

Request for prayer: I have a huge test on Tuesday night. I will hopefully send in my 6 weeks grades tomorrow afternoon so I can study for the entire weekend. Please pray for me to be able to study and to do well on this test. Thank you. Peace, gc