James: Week 1

Devotional

Just for a moment I want to ask you to do something that you probably don’t like to do. I am going to ask you to remember one of your worst days. Maybe it was the worst day of your life, maybe it was a series of bad days in a bad year, whatever it was I want you to think about how you felt that day. How discouraged? How hopeless? How devastated did you feel?

Now I want you to imagine that on your worst day you came to me for comfort. You are venting and expressing your pain. I can clearly see that you are really hurting as you tell me all the details of this really bad day. I want you to imagine my response to you, while you’re pouring out all your hurt to me, imagine that my response is “I know this is really hard, but it’ll be ok, just be happy.” Now if you are honest with me, you would not appreciate that response, right? It feels dismissive, like I don’t understand or care about what you are going through. It feels like I am just brushing it off. Like I don’t want to deal with your feelings.

I know if someone said that to me on my worst day, I would be very unhappy with you.

So here is my question, how does James, the brother of Jesus, have the audacity to say that in James 1:2-4,

If you were here this weekend, you know that James was writing to a group of Christians who were going through extreme persecution. They were being hunted down, arrested. Some were put on crosses, some were burned alive. The entire force of the roman government was coming against these believers. Separating them from their families and communities and doing everything they could to stop the spread of Christianity.

If anyone knows what a bad day looks like, it’s these guys. But in the middle of their bad day, James has the audacity to tell them to consider it joy? To be happy about it?? How can he do that?

Well he can do that because:

James knows something we often forget.

He knows that there is something much bigger going on than just the physical trial they were facing. James knows that every time a believer is facing a difficulty on earth, there is more happening behind the scenes. James knows that your present circumstance is not the end of the road but God actually has more planned and more he is doing in the middle of your really bad day than you would ever realize. He knows that when you feel like everything is falling apart, God is not in Heaven stressing out. But He is in control, He is with you, and He is using your pain for something good.

You see in the middle of the trial God is doing a few things.

God is working on your heart.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

When you give your life to Jesus, you become a new creation and every day as you follow Jesus, God is shaping your heart and mind to be more like Him. God uses our really bad days to do all kinds of good in our hearts. He uses it to grow our perseverance like James said. It makes us stronger and able to withstand more, it helps us to have empathy and compassion for other people who are hurting, and it helps us trust Him more.

We can have joy in our trials because we know God is using it to transform our hearts and minds, and because:

God is working around you.

When we are in the middle of the pain, it is really hard to think about anything but our own problems. It’s so easy to forget about everyone else and what God might be doing for them. But the truth is God uses our biggest mistakes and heartbreaks to help other people too.

Think about the people that James was writing to. They were probably really struggling with all that was happening, but what they might not have realized is that God was using that persecution to grow the church like crazy. All throughout the new testament, the church is under attack and yet the church is growing by the thousands. God used the pain they went through to draw more people to believing in Him. More people were saved and set free from sin because of the trial they were dealing with.

God wants to be close to you in your pain, heal you, help you learn and then have you help someone else who is going through the same thing. Your biggest mistake could be a great lesson or comfort for someone else. What a joy it would be to know that you were able to help someone else with what you went through!

Understand me on this: I am not saying God causes your pain. I am not saying God is looking for ways to hurt you. There are so many reasons why bad things happen to us and I don’t believe any of them are because God is out to get us. No, he loves us and wants good for us. He is so good and loves us so much that He doesn’t allow our pain to go to waste, but He uses it to grow us. That’s why we can have joy on our worst days.

*Before you get started ask your students how they did with the new testament reading challenge. If students are struggling consider starting a group chat to help each other*

GAME

Chief Salad

NEEDS:

SETUP: Seat all students in a circle and have them all select a vegetable in pairs of two.

Directions:

1. Have the chef in the middle and students sitting on the outside. They are not allowed to sit next to their pair.
2. The Chef then calls out the name of a vegetable. At their calling, the two people who are that vegetable need to quickly try and change seats, and the Chef needs to try and grab one of their spots whilst they are changing.
3. If the cook does, they become that vegetable and the person who missed out becomes the Chef.
4. The Chef can also call out "Chef Salad" and everyone must change seats.

Small group questions

1. Have you ever been able to look back at a hard time in your life and realize how God used it for good? *leader share an example first if you have one*
2. What can we do to find joy in our trials, knowing what we know about God?

Bible study

*NOTE* For younger groups, if you feel they aren’t ready for a full soap journal, encourage them to read through the passage and write down 1. Anything that sticks out to them. 2. Any questions they have from the passage. 3. What they think God wants them to learn from that passage. Then talk over it as a group

1. Last week we learned the SOAP method for studying the Bible. Let’s apply that today as a group to James chapter 1.

Open up your journal and write out

S:

O:

A:

P:

1. First let’s pray and ask God to show us what we need to learn about Him or His Word today.
2. We’ll start by taking 10 minutes to read James chapter 1. Don’t rush through it but take your time to understand and look for one verse that sticks out to you. *read for 10 minutes*
3. Now that we have read, let’s take 10 minutes to journal. You will start by writing down the verse or verses that stuck out to you in the scripture section. Then write your observation, application and prayer. Remember don’t rush, really take the time to see what God has for you.

Questions for observation:

• What is happening in this verse?
• What is God doing or saying in this verse?
• What can I learn from this verse?

Question for application:

• What should I do based on what I just read?

5. Now let’s take a few minutes to share with the group what we learned. *be prepared to dive into any questions and gently correct any confusion or misunderstandings. If you come to a question you don’t know the answer to, remember it is ok to say “I don’t know, let’s find out together!”

Moving forward

James was no stranger to trials and yet he knew God had a bigger plan in the middle of all of it. Maybe you have spent all night thinking about the trial you are going through and you can’t imagine how God could be working in it. Maybe you just need someone to pray for you and what you are going through. Let’s divide into groups of 3 and pray for what each person is going through.

Challenge: In prep for next week take some time to read James 2 and write down any questions you may have about it.