Staying the Course in Hard Times

"Staying the Course in Hard Times" (James 4:7-10)

Everyone knows these are hard days. Bill Welte tells me that more than a thousand people receive the Freedom Fighter emails. He knows one person who forwards each edition to at least a thousand more people.Some who read FF have already lost their jobs or will soon. Others may have lost their home. Some have seen salaries decrease and may hold on by a thread. It's the most difficult time I've seen our country endure in my lifetime.

Let's learn something. Christ-followers aren't immune to tough times.
The tough times may actually be good for us; they strengthen our resolve to walk with Jesus and trust Him during those hard days. Many of us pray that God will use the current situation in our county to draw many to Him. It's amazing how important God becomes when life is hard!

How will you stay the course during the hard times? I've referred to this passage from James 4 in other Freedom Fighters, but I've distinctly sensed the Lord leading me to it for this Saturday. The hard times we're in warrant James' instruction to his readers. Hard times prove who we really are. They force us to make choices that we might not otherwise have to consider. Those choices can make all the difference.

The Apostle James writes to believers who are suffering. Some have allowed the suffering to hinder their walk with Jesus. They need the exhortation James provides. Some of us need it, too. He challenges them to action-action that requires choices. As with His original readers, those choices determine the course of our lives.

Let me list the four basic instructions in these verses.
1) Submit to God, vs. 7.
2) Resist the devil, vs. 7.
3) Draw near to God, vs. 8.
4) Humble yourselves in the sight of God, vs. 10. Notice that each instruction is simple and easy to understand. Notice, too, that each instruction is targeted to single individuals. Finally, notice that each instruction requires a choice-to do or not do what God instructs through His apostle.

Three of the four instructions also have promises attached to them. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Humble yourself, and He will lift you up. The results all come as a result of a choice. If every person who reads this FF will choose to hear the instruction and respond as God intends, we'll have everything we need to "stay the course in hard times. This isn't rocket science. It's one simple choice-the choice to obey God's instructions because He is completely trustworthy.

I don't know almost all of you who'll read this, and you don't know me.
We can still pray for each other, asking God to help each of us "stay the course in hard times." -- John Strain is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Toms River

Think about this: You cannot stop people's tongues, and therefore the best thing to do is to stop your own ears and never mind what is spoken.
-- Charles Haddon Spurgeon