Reading: James 1:12-18
Speaker: Tommy Pratt
Thoughts on Wise Living
This article speaks on the subject of miscarriage and baby loss. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please get in touch with charities such as https://www.sayinggoodbye.org/, who offer resources, support, and services to those in need. If you want to get in touch locally with our church for prayer and/or support, then contact us, or talk with our leaders after a Sunday morning service.
How often do worry about offending God? About dragging His good name through the mud. When you hit your lowest point, are you ready to curse God for the trials in your life? I know I have been. One time always jumps to mind.
My wife was 5 months pregnant with our first son. It was sunshine and rainbows on the drive to her routine check-up. We were cheerfully planning the rest of our day as the nurse began her scans. “What should we have for lunch?” “Hmm…” “Maybe grab a sandwich and then go bowling?” But then the nurse’s face turned grey. Her friendly chitchat stopped, and she focused on her monitor. Focused hard.
When the nurse left for help, Kate and I just sat there in nervous silence. Then our doctor arrived. She was crying. Before or since, this is the only time I have ever seen a doctor cry.
The news was bad. As bad as it gets.
It turned out Kate had caught a bug the month before. Her cold had come and gone, but in the meantime, Kate’s sniffles had stopped our little Oliver’s organs developing. The next week was a blur. I felt our son kick once, maybe twice. Then he was gone. Taken from us and delivered safe into the arms of God.
Safe into the arms of God. I say that now and gain great comfort. But at the time I was ready to curse the Lord I was still coming to know. I was a new believer, busy exploring the Bible, and now my boy had been taken. I would never hold him. Never feed him. Never kick a ball with him or meet his first love. What next?
The Lord’s prayer is so familiar, so oft repeated, that we can recite it and miss its preciseness. It talks of temptation, but as James reminds us, God is never the tempter. Never the source of sin. He is only and ever our saviour. The One we must seek in times of trouble. And what greater trouble is there than cursing God when we encounter trials?
Jesus says to pray this way: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” God leads His own in Scripture. James knew this when he told believers to be resolute in the face of temptation, as ‘afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him’ (James 1:12).
When trials close in, I lean on Paul’s words to the struggling Corinthians. To them he said: ‘No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it’ (1 Cor. 10:13).
As James begins his letter saying, we must seek wisdom from God, and wisdom says to run to Him. We are to trust that He acts with strength. We are to remember that He is gracious to give the way of escape, but only once the trials He allows have developed our Christian character.
I wanted to hate God when Oliver left this world much sooner than expected. But I could not. I stand convinced that God’s Spirit was already at work within me. He would not allow me to abandon my studies. He would stand fast and anchor me in the worst storm of my life. He would not allow me to be enticed and dragged away by my sinful desires.
I came through the fires of temptation, but I was not alone. Like Daniel’s friends in the fiery furnace, the Lord’s angel was with me. I was guarded from my fallen impulse to hate God and run from His goodness. Because of that grace, I now stand with James and declare that ‘whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens’ (James 1:17). Our God is not one of shadow. He is the source of light. The sole saviour. Our anchor in stormy seas and the only way of escape.