James - 1:12-18 35,000 Decisions 

When I was growing up, I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books. Apparently, during the 80’s and 90s, these books were one of the most popular children’s book series, selling more than 250 million copies. I would have been on the front side of that curve, devouring them in the early 80s. If you are not familiar with the books, they would suck you in, and you, as the reader, would take the role of the main character, a race car driver, spy, doctor, or mountain climber, etc. As the story progresses, you would be faced with two or three options, each leading to more choices that are then lead to one of many endings. You would choose your own adventure as you progressed in the story.

The section of James chapter 1 we are covering today really reminds me of these Choose Your Own Adventurebooks. Let us dive in;

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” - ‭‭James‬ ‭1:12-18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Ok, so if you are not following the book example, just stay with me a bit, I will unpack that in a moment. But before I go there, let's take this a verse at a time and inspect such things first. 

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” - ‭‭James‬ ‭1:12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Many times when I face a verse like this, I like to unpack what the verse does not say. We read what it says, but for a moment, realize It does not say, “Blessed is the man who is never tempted.” Nor does it say, “Blessed is the man who finds all temptation easy to conquer.” Instead, the promise of blessedness is given to the one who endures temptation. There is a special gift of blessedness from God to the one who can say “no” to temptation, thereby saying “yes” to God.

I know that we all know this, but I am reminding myself at this point that the Bible never promises that this life will be easy. And it is also important to remember that following Jesus was never promised to be an easy journey. But, the second part of this verse does remind us that it will be worth it; the crown of life that the Lord has promised is coming. James reminds us that it is worth it to endure under the temptations we face. Our steadfastness will be rewarded as we demonstrate our love for Jesus (to those who love Him) by resisting temptation.

Now we can go into the pathways, and the choices that we face...our life is really a choose your own adventure story. A quick Google search lead me to realize that the average adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day. Each decision, of course, carries inevitable consequences with it that are both good and bad. The books I read gave me a few dozen choices to make, our life presents us tens of thousands of decisions a day, and each of them takes us down a path. Did you realize that when we make these choices, and we enter the consequences of those decisions, God wants to bring out the best in us, but Satan wants to bring out the worst. God has a plan for building us up through these decisions and choices and has an end game of rewarding us, a crown of life, a symbol of victory!

“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” - ‭‭James‬ ‭1:13-18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

35,000 decisions each and every day that makes up the journey and our life story. Satan wants to bait us and hook us with our internal desires and tempt us into poor decisions. You see, that is not a part of God’s path or His plan, God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt us...remember that! It’s our own internal sin and desires that lead us off course, a matter of our heart.

A huge takeaway for me is, 35,000 decisions are way too many times for me to get it right. I need God’s help and wisdom. I am taken back to verse 5, 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” - ‭‭James‬ ‭1:5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Lord, as we go into this day and face 35,000 decisions, I ask you to help us. Father guide our paths and assist us today in each and every decision that needs to be made. Lord, we desire to glorify you today, in the big and the small and mundane. Thank you in advance for protecting us and guiding us via the Holy Spirit. Amen