James 1:16 “Do not err, my beloved brethren.”
This is a little word, but carries a powerful meaning. The
word itself means - go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be out of the way
– but I believe here the Lord is telling us to beware that life and things in
life do not lead us astray causing us to fall away from the church or the
truths of God’s word. Life is difficult and the world is loaded with
temptations. It is easy to give into the temptation of the world or Statin himself.
The world that we live in today is loaded with greater temptations of drugs,
fun, excitement, or anything that will take our mind off of God or His word.
Churches have erred from truth and soundness in order to have a heavier
population in the churches, and larger populations means more cash in the
offering plate. People are tempted to avoid church by T.V, radio, of even the
internet but there is no substitute for church. Satan has created many ways to
make Christian believers to err. God will tempt us to try us but never to cause
up to fall. “Let no man say when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither
tempteth he any man:” James 1:13 There is so much we as believers in Jesus
Christ do not know or understand, but this I know while God will test us He
will never cause us to fall. If we look at Job, he was heavily tempted by
Satan, he took just about everything poor Job had, and with God’s blessings.
See, God already knew how Job would react and God allowed these things to
happen to show Satan how faithful Job was to God. It is true that God created
evil because He created Lucifer to be the Devil. He created Esau to show He
does not love everyone, and He created Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus Christ
His Own Son. We simply do not always know or even understand why God does
things or why He allows Satan to do certain things to us and to this world. While
we are in this flesh there is so much about God that we will never understand,
we will simply wander around trying to figure it all out like Job did. But the
greatest lesson we can learn from Job is that he was faithful. It would have
been easy to have obeyed his wife “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still
retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.” Job 2:9 But Job called her a
foolish woman and continued to be faithful to God. We might ask why God is
doing these things to us, but truly we do not know if God is doing them or is
Satan doing them. The best thing for us to do as Christians is to be like Job,
and continue to be faithful to God. When we “err” or fall away from the church,
the bible truths, or even to fall away from God, we are wrong to do so. Our
life as Christians should be dedicated to God in every aspect, and it is our
job to keep our faith strong. The first sign of “err” is our lack of church
responsibility. As long as you are in church you are getting rejuvenated in the
Lord, in your faith, and in your life. No, or little church activity is like
little to no exercise, you weaken. Then life is like a set of dominos, once
that first one falls, (the lack of church) then everything else begins to fall,
like dominos tipping each other over till all have fallen. Beloved, it is our
job to keep ourselves from err, God will give us the strength and ability to pass
the err test of live, but it is still a work on our part. Never give up, God is
still in control, even if the sky is falling, God is still in control. As long
as we have strong faith and continue to attend church, God will continue to
give us the faith to stand strong in this world of temptation. Prayer also is a
must, the stronger your prayer life the stronger your church attendance, the
stronger your truth will be and the stronger you will be to be able (like Job)
to withstand the wales of the Devil and not ERR.
