The Pure Gifts of God

The Pure Gifts of God
How wisdom plays the part
James 3:17 – 18

The week of July 24th was a tough week that I won’t soon forget. The more I think about it, the more awed I am about my amazing God. HE is the most amazing God that a man can serve, and better yet, know. I also am thankful for a church family and the friends who show sincere concern and love that has been shown to us. There were some things that happened during my wait in the waiting room that showed me how God really speaks to us, if we will only listen.

On Thursday, while I was in the waiting room of ICU, as days before, I was reading God’s Word and meditating. As I prayed and thought of how God was so good to me and Becky, I came across a scripture in the book of James, which I focused upon, because it really stood out to me. James, who was Jesus’ brother, wrote a book that is very harsh at times and has a tendency to bring a reality check to Christians. James 3:17 caught my eye and I just couldn’t quit reading it.

James 3:17 – 18 says, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” Now, true enough, these scriptures say a whole lot, if you meditate upon them. Except for a couple of visitors, before this time I had been spending most of my time in the waiting room totally by myself. Of course there were some other people in the area, but they had their families with them and they were focused upon their situations.

I was sitting in a chair and really talking to God and meditating upon these scriptures when a man, whom I had never seen, comes directly to me and asked, “How are you today?” I answered that I was fine, knowing that down deep inside I wasn’t that great. I was concerned about my wife’s well being, and at that particular time, it still wasn’t that great. The man proceeded on by looking at my Bible and said, “So you’re reading God’s Word huh? I said, “Yes, I’m doing a little reading and a little praying.” This man then said, “I couldn’t think of a better thing to do right now. You know what I was just thinking? I was thing about the gifts of the Spirit.” I just looked at him and smiled. He then said, “You have a nice day,” and he left. I haven’t seen the man since. He came, he went, and he wasn’t there a total of 60 seconds.

I started looking in 2 Peter 1, and reading another passage. In verses 4 – 9 the passage says, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”

As I continued to dwell on the Word of God, which had been revealed unto me, I thought about how interesting, or you might think, ‘weird,’ it was for this man to come speak to me. I thought of the scripture in Hebrews, where it talks about, “entertaining angels unawares.” Of course, it may have very well been that this was an ordinary man, but God sure got my attention. It took me a few minutes, but I think I got the picture of what the Lord was saying to me through HIS WORD. I was studying James, yet I was now in 2 Peter. How interesting is that?

Every one of these things mentioned in 2 Peter 1:4 – 7 are gifts. Paul said that there were three gifts; faith hope and love. However, we need to understand that all the other gifts hinge upon these three, and they all point toward our God. What does wisdom have to do with it though? The fact of the matter is that we obtain wisdom from God and James said, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him, (James 1:5.) There is a condition though, according to James. He tells us in verse 6, “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” The key to the whole thing is faith. Faith come by hearing and hearing by the WORD OF GOD. We need to understand that everything God sends to us is pure. It really fits what James said; first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, and without hypocrisy. I would challenge us all to look at these pure fruits of the spirit and allow God to speak to us. As Solomon would say, "A wise man will hear." Let’s just listen. A wise man fears God, and if he really does fear God, then he listens, right? Wisdom is a great free gift. Lord help us to always hear YOUR still small voice as you show us YOUR pure LOVE. May we always know that YOU are our only HOPE, and may we always seek YOU by Faith. Amen.