I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me. Psalm 13:6 NKJV.

Jesus said to (Peter), “If I want (John) to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” John 21:22 NASB.

Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37.

Our chapter, James 4, deals with the heart of so many of the problems we deal with every day. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?” But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

My husband and I watched two powerful movies the last two nights. Both dealt with judging and forgiveness. The Shack dealt with judging God for something so awful He did not prevent from happening. Even as that was realized and loosed deep shackles of not trusting that God is good, there remained the judgment to burn in hell the one who killed an innocent child. That required a deeper dive with God to forgive for his own healing, and an even deeper dive to trust God for the healing later for the one who killed. I Can Only Imagine was the second movie that showed the brokenness that had to be realized in all of its deep hurting in both a “monster” of a father and in a son traumatized by his rage. The deep dive God facilitated separately in both, took both of them turning to each other, wrenched from the deep ruts of learned behavior, to see each other as children of God dearly loved. God began the healing and they walked into it together and together found a bond of healing love so needed in both.

I don’t understand all of the pain and suffering in this world. But one thing I know. God did not create so that we could fall and sin and suffer misery in this life, and then suffer for all eternity in “hell”. Do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose…He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us! Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. That very strong word in our chapter…adulteresses…means following the way of Satan who lies and hates and kills and destroys…and why that way leads to mourning, weeping, gloom, misery. Submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Why does he flee? Darkness flees from the light. Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, shows us the way to healing love that frees us from the deep, binding shackles of not knowing that God is Good. When those shackles are loosed, we can begin to see and experience and then know God’s love for you and for me and for all of us. That is our journey of healing with God – and with Him – with one another.