“James”
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
A simple understanding of the word “righteousness” in the Bible is “to live in a right relationship with God.” This happens only by grace, when we trust in what Jesus has done for us on the cross, and depend on what the Holy Spirit does in and through our changed lives. This trusting and depending is at the heart of what James calls wisdom that comes from above. Wisdom is when we allow the Holy Spirit to take all our knowledge (of God and the world), intelligence, experiences, and use them to bring meaning and direction into our lives. It is God’s resource for maturity through adversity (1:2-8), and here it is His prescription for living a “good life” that is full of godly fruit (v.17). Is that the wisdom I desire more than anything else?
O God of mercy, shield me from the “wisdom” that is not from You: the kind that is self-promoting, divisive, even devilish. I open myself to Your Holy Spirit. Work in me so that not only will I experience the good life You want me to have, Your wisdom through me will bring Your peace, one-ness, wholeness in the lives of all those around me. Amen.
