My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:2-4

One of the things about coming to the Lord in prayer, to find grace, our way out many times is through patience and waiting. When you come boldly to the throne of grace to ask God to help you time of need, God may not answer right away. He may say; wait. What are you going to do? You need to have confidence in God and willingness to wait. How long did Abraham have to wait for his promise? From the time God gave him the promise until Isaac came, it was 20 years. What does the scripture say about Abraham? It says that he didn’t stagger but was strong in faith.

A mother told her son not to go swimming. However, when he came into the house his mother noticed that his hair and bathing suit were wet. "Johnnie," his mother scolded, "I told you not to go swimming." "I couldn’t help it mom," he defended himself. "The water looked so good." "But why did you take your bathing suit with you?" "In case I was tempted."

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. James 1:14

A lot of people think the same as this little boy; they will go where they’re not supposed to go.  Then, when they fall into the trap, they have some excuse for why it happened.  All along it was in their heart to do it and be disobedient.

Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD. 1 Kings 12:24

The reading passage for February 1st, in the book, Streams in the Desert has the phrase; “this thing is from me.”There isn’t one thing that we come in contact with that God doesn’t permit. Didn’t God permit everything that happened to Job? What was Job’s attitude when all of his 10 children were killed, tornadoes came and tore down their house, all of his sheep were killed, all of his horses, all of his asses, and everything that he had was destroyed in one day? What did Job do? He fell down on his face and worshiped God and said; the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  We need to have that same attitude regardless of what path of life God leads us down.

And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. Genesis 50:4-9

Can you imagine that? Joseph was in a foreign land. Because of his good attitude all down through the years, Pharaoh let him take who ever wanted to go with him to bury his father. It was a large group that went back into Canaan to bury Jacob, not just family but Pharaoh’s servants and leaders from the land of Egypt. That was amazing.

For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews 2:11

If one person is claiming to be sanctified and one with Christ; and another person is claiming to be sanctified and one with Christ, what does that mean? It means they’re going to be one with each other. They’re going to have one heart, one purpose, one mind. A lot of people are saying that they are one with Christ but they can’t be one with others that are with Christ. Something’s wrong, if we’re one with Christ, we should be one with everybody else that’s one with Christ. That’s the very purpose why Jesus said that he wanted a people that were sanctified so that they could be one just as he and the Father are one. God doesn’t want any division among us.

If you were standing at the edge of the cliff at the Grand Canyon and someone came up to you with a suitcase that they said contained thousands of dollars, if they said that they were going to throw the suitcase over the cliff and you could have it if you jumped after it, would you jump after it?  You would wonder what good it would be to you when you were broken and dead on the bottom.  It is exactly the way sin is. There is no value whatsoever, in sin, no matter how good it looks.  Every one of us has made choices in the past year. Today we made choices and we will make many choices in this new year.

There is such a spirit of unbelief in the world that says it really isn’t important, the choices that we make.  In the past week someone told me that they knew they had lied but it was just a mistake and God forgave them.  They said that they would probably lie again but since it would just be a mistake, God would probably forgive them again.  This is the way religions look at God, they look at him as just a cover-up for them to continue on sinning.

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Revelations 2:1-5

These scriptures describe a people that were busy in their work for the Lord, they labored and they didn’t faint.  They were going through the right motions, they were claiming to be saved, and they were doing what they thought that they should do but they had left their first love.  We can get caught up in being religious and not really have a connection with God.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 2 Timothy 3:1-2

Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezekiel 33:30-31

We are living in an age where covetousness goes right along with people being lovers of their own selves.  There are a lot of things involved in covetousness.  We can sit just like the people in these scriptures  are sitting, in the congregation, love the songs, and we can say that we just love the Word of God and all the time our heart be going after covetousness because we’re not doing what the Word says.  What is the definition of covetousness?  Many times we just think of it as being greedy.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 Timothy 3:1

In the last days, and those are the days that we’re living in, one of the first things that this scripture says is that people will be lovers of their own selves.  Don’t we see that, the world over? People just love themselves.  But, right along with that, they are unthankful and unholy.  Every one of us has been unthankful at some point in time.  In studying this lesson, there are reasons why people are unthankful.  We need to check our lives to make sure that we can see ourselves like God sees us; because God wants us to be thankful all the time.