Are You Blessed?

James 1: 12: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

The prior verse speaks of the sure end of those who are rich with this world's goods, without having been brought low by God in the spirit. Here we read that the man who is truly rich, truly happy, the man with the greatest fortune, is the man that patiently endures.

Most everyone can suffer through hard times. That is not what is meant by enduring temptation. Throughout this study we have looked at the individual characteristics which define what it is to endure trial:

• It is to take great comfort in the various trials which we face (Ja 1:2).
• It is to grow more patient because the trial proves our faith to be God-given (Ja 1: 3,4).
• It is seeing our lack and asking God for wisdom, and learning God is faithful (Ja 1: 5).
• It is growing in singleness of heart with more dependence upon Christ and away from all else (Ja 1: 6-8).
• It is to realize the flesh and all its cravings are vanity. It is to learn that true worship serves God in the inward man, in spirit and in truth because God's riches are those possessed in the heart not in the hand (Ja 1: 9-11).

Blessed is this man. He is blessed because God has made an everlasting covenant with him, even the sure mercies of his King, Jesus. God has given him assurance that nothing can separate him from the love of God in Christ. This man is blessed because the love of God is shed abroad in his heart. God has given him genuine happiness in the Lord Jesus and nowhere else. The blessed man has God's promise that when this life is over eternal life (knowing Christ as Christ has known him) shall be the gift with which God crowns him. The blessed man continues to endure because, by grace, he believes the God he loves.

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SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH Of Princeton, New Jersey