{"id":1926,"date":"2019-11-18T10:25:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T18:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2019-11-18T10:25:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T18:25:30","slug":"devotion-james-117-its-a-heart-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1926","title":{"rendered":"Devotion James 1:17 It\u2019s A Heart Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

James 1:27<\/strong> – \u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after\u00a0orphans and widows\u00a0in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

To do this is to love as God loves.\u00a0 It is to do for another with no expectation of being paid back.\u00a0 God did that for us when Jesus came to die for us.\u00a0 He gave us what we can never repay<\/p>\n

Isaiah 1:17<\/strong> \u2013 Learn to do right, seek justice.\u00a0 Defend the oppressed.\u00a0 Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.<\/p>\n

The eyes of God are on the poor who are unable, for whatever reason, to help themselves.\u00a0 Any and all persons who are mentally or physically or emotionally unable to help themselves are loved by God.\u00a0 Why doesn\u2019t He do something about it?\u00a0 He has.\u00a0 He put His Spirit in us and His love in us and sent us to be His hand to the poor. \u00a0He blessed us with the intention that we would also bless others.\u00a0 Family, if we don\u2019t have the love of God within us then clearly we don\u2019t belong to God (1 John 4:8<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Proverbs 28:27<\/strong> – Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.<\/em><\/p>\n

God will bless those who pour His love and riches on the poor, but clearly those who will not, for whatever reason they manufacture, remain outside of grace because their greed and lack of faith are a wall they cannot pass. \u00a0The love of God is not in them.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy<\/strong> – If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.<\/em><\/p>\n

God has said to not to be hardhearted and close our fist toward the poor.\u00a0 He calls us to love and be generous and at the least to lend them \u201cwhatever they need.\u201d\u00a0 Think about it. Those who reason again generosity reason against their own soul.<\/p>\n

Luke 14:14<\/strong> – Then Jesus said to his host . . . When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.<\/em><\/p>\n

Those dirty, smelling and wretched, or just downcast people are not below any of us.\u00a0 In God\u2019s eyes we were all dirty, smelling and wretched and yet He still He loved us, washed us, and called us His own.\u00a0 If the essence of God, His Holy Spirit, is not being lived out in our lives, if our hearts are hard and if we refuse to soften, then we are in grave danger.\u00a0 Remember that those who will not give mercy, who will not forgive, who are unloving and not generous, who think that the grace of God is impotent against their wiles to elude what God expects of us, they will fall into a snare they have set.\u00a0 Galatians 6:7<\/strong> \u201cDo not be deceived:\u00a0God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 What goes around comes around.\u00a0 If we have no compassion and mercy for the poor and needy, then the love of God is not within and we should not expect compassion and mercy from Him.<\/p>\n

1 John 3:17<\/strong> – If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.<\/em><\/p>\n

If a hornet\u2019s nest is disturbed then hornets come rushing out.\u00a0 If a container of honey is opened then honey will come out.\u00a0 What is in our hearts flows out.\u00a0 It is honey and not hornets that must rush out from hearts.\u00a0 It is a proof to ourselves that our hearts are right with God.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah 17:10<\/strong> – I the\u00a0Lord\u00a0search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.<\/em><\/p>\n

I pray that the Lord will search my heart and find within it what pleases Him.\u00a0 (Psalm 139:23-24<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

And what convicts me is Luke 12:32-34 <\/strong>\u201cDo not be afraid,\u00a0little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.\u00a033\u00a0Sell your possessions and give to the poor.\u00a0Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven\u00a0that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.\u00a034\u00a0For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Do we do enough?\u00a0 Do our churches give with the reasoning of man or with the heart of God?\u00a0 Is our level of loving the poor pleasing to God!\u00a0 If not let\u2019s pray that He change our hearts.\u00a0 May our most prized riches be in Heaven and not here on earth?\u00a0 And that, to the glory of God!<\/p>\n

Lastly we are not talking about working for salvation.\u00a0 We are talking about proof of salvation within us.<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/em><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Numbers 6:24-26<\/strong> \u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James 1:27 – \u00a0Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after\u00a0orphans and widows\u00a0in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. To do this is to love as God loves.\u00a0 It is to do for another with no expectation of being paid back.\u00a0 God…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1927,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions\/1927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}