No Shifty-god

Mar. 1

Read: James 1:16-18

No Shifty-god

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (v.16,17)

Our last devotional looked at what DOES NOT come from God- namely, temptation and trials designed to mess us up. In short, we learned last time that God doesn’t give us “bad days” to see how we will respond. He can’t have “bad days” and he doesn’t give them to his children either. (cf. Feb. 28 Devo) So what DOES come from the Lord?

“Every good gift and every perfect gift” comes from the Lord. This is what we should attribute to God. Whatever is good, right, holy, true, and perfect… this comes from him. It is easy to see the contrast in the scriptures.  God is called “the Father of lights” in verse 16. Evil and darkness come from the enemy… goodness and light come from the LORD. It is interesting that verse 16 begins with: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.” Why is that?

It is totally possible to misunderstand where goodness comes from… to be tricked into thinking that YOU create the good things for yourself. When the Devil or his minions speak to you… they will try to convince you that there are “good gifts” to be had in the midst of sin! This is a LIE as well. We cannot be deceived into thinking that we are the source of the “good gifts” that we have and we must not believe the Devil when he tells us that he is either!

God is CONSISTENT in his giving of “good gifts from above” to his children. He is not a “shifty-god” who you cannot count on. Our LORD is the one in “whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” God is steadfast. You can count on him. And maybe the wildest part is that he is committed to doing something unique in you and I. Look at these final verses:

“Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (v.18)

It is God’s WILL and desire to transform us and bring us forth out of the suffering and difficulty by the “word of truth”. Do you see that? It is what God WANTS to do… his “will”. He is making us a unique “first example” in all of his creatures. This is what a “firstfruits” is; we are the very first creatures being transformed and brought in from the proverbial harvest of his good work. It is his desire to bring you into the truth and light. It is his desire to give you good gifts and perfect gifts from above. It is one thing to realize that God is not out to destroy you as a Christian. That can be hard to believe sometimes. What may be even harder to to believe that God has something GOOD in store for you! The enemy wants to make the presence of difficulty seem like it came from God…”God is tempting me”… He is not. The enemy wants to use trials to have you doubt God’s goodness and willingness to work from above. Don’t fall for the lie! God has not changed his character, he is calling you into the light and desires to give good gifts to his children. Love you guys. - JDP