Stability is something we all desire in some way. Stability in our relationships. Stability in our jobs. Stability in our nation. Even stability in my own life. There are many things that I want to do and that I enjoy doing. One of my biggest flaws is finishing a project. I get sidetracked very… Wait, where was I going with this? Oh, right…
I have a long list of unfinished projects. It is not as long as it was a few months ago, but it is still rather lengthy. As I get started on a project, I am constantly thinking about what is next. I will often get a great idea and can’t wait to get started. I find myself putting more time and resources into the new project that the one I was working on gets relegated to the unfinished projects list. As I get refocused on that unfinished projects list, I now have a growing “new projects” list. Again… Where was I going with this?
There are many times I have not followed through on a project, and sometimes it has had a negative impact on other people. Typically it is because of either a lack of confidence to see the project through, or I just get bored with it and move on to the next thing. I am very thankful that God does not relegate me to his “unfinished project” list. To be clear, I am a work in progress, but God is still working in my life, and I am not just stuck on a shelf or a list somewhere. Sometimes it feels like I have been set aside and I am on my own, but that is never the case.
I find James 1:16-18 to be a curious passage. James has been writing about how sin grows out of your own desires. I wrote about that just before I took my break for knee surgery. Then, in the next section, he seems to make a major shift.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
James 1: 16-18
It is easy to look at trials as a problem, but maybe they are a gift. The good and perfect gift of love and forgiveness as we work through our failures is an amazing gift from God. A God that is true and provides a stable foundation for us to build our lives on. A foundation that “does not change like shifting shadows.” A God that doesn’t get bored with us and move on to the next project. Through Jesus Christ, the word of truth, we have become an offering to the King of Kings. The best of all creation.
It doesn’t matter what you have done, even if that temptation has given over to sin and that sin has lead to the death of your spirit. Jesus, the “giver of life” has the good and perfect gift of love and forgiveness for you. He does not change. He can be that stability you have been looking for.
Curtis
