Month: February 2023

Kitchen Table Devotions

James Day 7

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?            James 4:12

There is only One Judge!  That’s something we discover, believe, and know in our spirit or our consciousness.  Again, it’s a spiritual thing that lives in the heart of a believer.  We are not the judge, He is, and here’s the thing.  In surrendering to His word, we can speak His word into our world.  When we speak our judgments, we’re left with our justice, not His.  We can speak the word of God or the word of man; which would you rather hear?

Kitchen Table Devotions

James 4 Day 6

Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.                              James 4:11

Always be ready to look at yourself first.  Jesus once said that we should deal with the board in our own eye before we worry about the speck in our brother’s eye.  Pride shows up in our mouths before it shows up in our mirror.  It’s so easy to talk about and judge others but never mention ourselves.  Two ways to see our spirit, and this is what James is getting at, seeing our spirit, and that is through the Scriptures and by our speech.  Let’s begin with the Scriptures and apply them to our speech first.  We all struggle with this, how about we all help each other with this struggle?  Let’s start talking from a heart of love and thanksgiving. 

Kitchen Table Devotions

James 4 Day 5

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.           James 4:7-10

The presence of the Lord changes everything.  God’s not waiting for us to do something, He’s waiting for us to desire something, to desire Him and His passion, presence, purpose, and power.  The confused spirit is not conscious of God’s presence and passion.  Let your spirit cause you to step toward God.  Desire His presence, passion, and perspective today and you’ll find yourself purging yourself of everything that interferes with your consciousness of Him and His hand that is lifting you to face this day.

Kitchen Table

James 4 Day 4

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.           James 4:7-10

The key to success is surrender.  It’s when we surrender our will, way, and wisdom to the will, way, and wisdom of God that we begin to know His great love for us.  But it happens in our spirit before it happens in our steps.  James writes to “purify your hearts”.  Become conscious in your spirit and you can become committed in your steps.  He will lift you up.  Live that way, in the consciousness of His love to lift you always.

Kitchen Table Devotions

James 4 Day 3

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:  “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

James 4:4-6

I know it’s hard to see but God is speaking to who we are more than what we do.  All this time He has been addressing our spirit, our heart, our consciousness.  There is no life in loving this world.  Many of us live afraid of what we’re going to lose, but believers live afraid of what they’re going to miss.  God has more and He gives us His spirit to get it.  Only the humble, who don’t want to miss what God has or is doing, get it.

Kitchen Table Devotions

James 4 Day 2

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.                            James 4:3

Pray!  Never let go of that great privilege Jesus gives us.  Prayer changes things because it brings God into the situation.  Maybe one of the most important things about prayer is that it changes us.  If we will let it, if we can face it, prayer will tell us a lot about ourselves.  There are two ways to see our spirit, our inner man, and the person we really are, and that’s by what we “see” in Scripture and what we “say” to God. Our prayers will show us what we believe about God and what we want for ourselves.  This verse can be shocking to our spirit but don’t let it just scold you, let it show you who you are really.  God wants to talk to the real you and it’s going to be good.

Kitchen Table Devotions

James 4 Day 1

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God

James 4:1-2

Here’s a little advice.  Always look for where it’s coming from.  It doesn’t have to be bad, but it’s not always good.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience.  There is always a spirit behind the face.  We can take very little at face value; there’s always something behind the face.  This isn’t meant to make us more work or worry but to give us more wisdom.  We each have a spirit that hungers and thirsts for God.  Take time to listen and look for the spirit of a man.  We learn that by listening and looking honestly to our own spirit.  There’s a reason why we do not have.

Kitchen Table Devotions

James

Day 34

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.                  James 3:13-14

Who is wise and understanding?  Let him show it!  Faith has fruit and the fruit we bear reveals the faith we have in our hearts.  We can’t hide it, but we can deny it.  Sometimes the last person to know the truth about our own selves is our own selves.  Wisdom begins with truth, and we can’t be afraid of the truth, or we will be afraid of being truthful with ourselves, and that’s not good.

Kitchen Table Devotions

James

Day 33

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. James 3:6

We can’t see our spirit except by the Scriptures and we can hear our spirit by what we say.  You can’t hide the testimony of the tongue.  Just listen and you’ll hear the spirit of a man.  The tongue is set on fire by what burns in the heart.  Let the love of Jesus burn in your heart.

Kitchen Table Devotions

James

Day 32

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. James 3:5-6

The littlest things cause the greatest troubles.  That’s the tongue but the problem is not the tongue; it’s the truth.  The truth isn’t a problem unless we’re not treasuring it or telling it.  The tongue is tied to what we really believe and Jesus said that out of the mouth, the heart speaks (Luke 6:45).  Again, our words determine our walk.  The best thing we can do for the tongue is to give it the truth.  The key to a good tongue is the true heart Jesus gives us.