Use this devo as you are able, in whole or in part. Don’t feel compelled to read it all. Simply read and meditate upon whatever catches your attention. The goal is enjoying time with God through His Word and in prayer. Questions about the devotional elements?

Call to Prayer

Prayer of Confession

Redeeming God, increase and fortify my faith today. Help me look to Christ, to his life, death, and resurrection, to rest in him who authors and completes my faith. Amen. (Prayer based on the Westminster Confession, Questions 14)

*Prayer borrowed from Philip Reinders’ Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year

Reading Plan

This reading plan will help you to develop the habit of being in God’s Word each morning and evening. Come to this time with expectation. Expect God to reveal himself to you. Expect that he delights in you being there, even when you’ve wandered away. Growing a spiritual habit is a slow, patient process. So be kind to yourself as you grow! 

Readings are hyperlinked. Simply hover over the passage or click Morning/Evening Reading (email version).

Morning Readings:

Pray Psalm 29 | Read Romans 12

• Praying the Psalms: Read slowly. Take note of words and phrases. Bring them before the Lord in prayer and personalize the passage as you pray.
• NT Context:The letter to the Romans is a piece of exuberant and passionate thinking. This is the glorious life of the mind enlisted in the service of God. Paul takes the well-witnessed and devoutly believed fact of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and thinks through its implications. How does it happen that in the death and resurrection of Jesus, world history took a new direction, and at the same moment the life of every man, woman, and child on the planet was eternally affected? What is God up to? What does it mean that Jesus “saves”? What’s behind all this, and where is it going? Meditate on the passage, noting a few words or a phrase that stood out. Take them to God in prayer.

Evening Readings:

Pray Psalm 30 | Read 2 Chronicles 18

• OT Context: “Sovereignty, God’s sovereignty, is one of the most difficult things for people of faith to live out in everyday routines…This story makes it clear that it was not God’s idea that the Hebrews have a king, but since they insisted, he let them have their way. But God never abdicated his sovereignty to any of the Hebrew kings; the idea was that they would represent his sovereignty, not that he would delegate his sovereignty to them. Reflect on the passage. Who was the original audience, and what was their situation? How is that relevant to you today?

Sermon Devo

We are in our Winter series through the book of James. Each day we will dig into a different aspect of this New Testament wisdom book which will, by the end of the week, help to give you a fuller portrait of the kind of lives we are called to live as Christians.  passage that will be preached on Sunday.  

Read: James 2:1-13

Most weeks I like to start our Tuesday morning by asking what you saw as you reviewed where we’ve been so far in James, which I’ll do again this morning, what did you see? Take a second and review if you’ve written something down. 

Now for the business of today. As I was saying, I usually follow up my question by telling you what I saw, but today, I want to allow another expert (or two!) with far more knowledge than myself to help us hear what we should be hearing! New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg writes of James 2:1-4,

“The key biblical precedent behind this paragraph is the command in Lev 19:15 not to show partiality toward either rich or poor. Clear reiterations of this principle come in Elihu’s speech in Job 34:19 and in Peter’s discourse with Cornelius in Ac 10:34…

…and of course, the larger theme of warning against the dangers of riches and of displaying concern for the poor pervades almost every part of the Bible; one thinks particularly of the reversals depicted in the parables of Lk 14:7–24 and 18:1–14 [Parables of the Great Banquest + The Persistent Widow + The Pharisee and the Tax Collector]…and Christ’s glory (Jas 2:1), whether taken as an attribute or a title, reflects a key characteristic of Yahweh himself, which he does not give to another (Isa 42:8). One cannot help but suspect at least a subtle reference to the deity of Christ here, but it may in fact be overt.”

The point, Blomberg is telling us, is that our gospel-fidelity as North American followers of the Risen Christ is almost always at risk because of our immense wealth. We are ever in danger of worshipping other “lords” as this paraphrastic translation brings into the fore: “Are you really trying to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the worship of rank?” (v.1).

Richard Buackham captures it well,

“The propensity of the rich to ignore the poor is not only an ethical but also a religious matter. To truly confront the plight of the poor would disturb the rich in their comfortable cocooning of themselves against the realities of life….the illusions of affluence are virtually the religion of contemporary western society. Its spiritual malaise cannot be cured without profound and practical attention to the destitute.”

This uncomfortable reality is what James will unswervingly steer us toward (try as we might to grab the wheel and head down less awkward roads!) this week.

REFLECT: James will eventually introduce to the “royal law” of gospel-love for others, but for today, I think it’s enough for us to recognize that partiality is scribed on the human heart, and we are certainly not immune. Thank God (I mean it in just that imperative sense!) that we have a Savior with whom there is no partiality (Romans 2:11)! No one gets a greater standing in his kingdom because of where they started in this world. All is of grace! Spend some time today thanking him for this reality of the gospel!

Evening Prayer of Examen

• Where did you move with or feel close to Jesus today?
• Where did you resist or feel far from Jesus today?
• Where is Jesus leading you tomorrow? Ask for joy as you follow him.

Benediction