In small group us girls have decided to start memorizing Scripture passages and share them with each other on Wednesday nights and I decided that the book of James is a powerful book that I want to start committing to memory. This week I'm working on James 1:2-8.
Yesterday, I got caught up on the word "steadfastness" in verse 3-4. "for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." So I looked it up in my concordance and here are the cross references that I found to help shed some light on the topic of steadfastness:
1. It is something a man of God should pursue (I Timothy 6:11)
2. God shows "steadfast" love to those who pursue Him (Dueteronomy 5:10)
3. God's love is steadfast (Ps. 27:3, 51:1, 86:13, 100:5 and Lamentations 3:22)
4. "...Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." (I Corinthians 15:58)
5. It is purduced by testing of your faith (James 1:3)
I was thinking about God's steadfast love this morning too, actually. I was reading through Hosea and really struck by it--how the prostitute/Israel/essentially "us" continually slap God in the face and we don't even acknowledge his goodness. Like Hosea 2:8 "For she did not know that I gave her the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they used for Baal." Though maybe "faithfulness" would be a better descriptor for that story.
ReplyDeleteLove reading your thoughts!