Tue Jul 22

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the word trials.

Reading

James 1:2–18—The Trials of Life

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Questions

(some read the ?s before notes, then ask them after)
  1. How should we respond to our trials?
  2. How best could we respond to the trials others face?
  3. What do trials do in our lives?

Notes

Today’s notes are from a commentary on James by Daniel Doriani

God can use all of life’s sorrows—and all its joys—to bring believers to maturity. But it is misleading to use James 1 as the first word in grief counseling. When Jesus met Mary and Martha, after their brother Lazarus died, he did not say, “God has a purpose in this”—even though he knew God did. First he comforted them, then he wept with them (John 11:19, 34). To use James for grief counseling is to miss its primary intent.

When James says believers should rejoice in trials because they test our faith and develop maturity, he addresses more than the hour of crisis or sorrow. James wants the church to live out its faith in the crucible of life, in all its tests. This includes tests born of hardship, such as accidents, sickness, poverty, and anxiety, but it also includes trials that spring from prosperity, such as wealth, knowledge, skill, and high position. Both hardship and prosperity test our faith. Either one can prove a profession of faith to be genuine or specious. Hardship brings obvious trials, but success sifts us too.1

James has more in mind than the truism “We grow strong through adversity.” He wants us to see the world a certain way. The goal of life is not to find maximum pleasure. Christians do not live for sensual pleasure. Our goal is maturity and endurance, not self-actualization (as popularly understood) and a pain-free life. …

Our response to trials reveals our heart condition.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 106f, 34a

Prayer

  1. Thank God for his help in trials.
  2. Give thanks for something from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
  3. Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.
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