Welcome to a year in the Bible with daily grace. The Bible tells one big story of

redemption and we want to spend five minutes every day journeying through the Bible from start to finish, and exploring how all of it

points to Jesus. Hi everyone welcome back to a year in the Bible with daily grace. My name is

Ali and I'm one of the hosts of the podcast. Today we'll be looking at James 4 and 5.

Well, we learned in the last episode which covered James Chapters 1 through 3,

that we should take care in the way we love others and that faith without works is dead.

We're saved by God's grace and His grace alone. There is no other way. And even though our works don't save us, they show

others the faith within us. We let others know that knowing Christ has changed us from the inside out and we are to tell the world

about him and the good news of the gospel. James begins the fourth chapter by discussing pride and humility and the quarrels they incite,

but God has called us to peace with each other, to build up and encourage one another in the faith. Instead, we too easily and often follow

the ways of the world. We are proud and put others down, thinking more of ourselves than those around us, thinking more of ourselves than the Lord.

James calls us to realize that we cannot follow after God and at the same time chase after the

world and what it offers. It is one or the other. God is jealous for us, for our attention, and for our hearts to desire Him and Him alone.

He then moves into another section of the chapter which discusses our will versus the sovereign will of God.

He points out that we cannot know what a day will hold and so to go about our days

trusting that God holds each one in his hands.

Our lives are like vapor, James says, and tomorrow is a mystery.

May we stand with our hands open before God submitting our lives and our

will to His, for otherwise we boast in our own arrogance that we rule our days when it is he alone who does.

Chapter 5 holds a warning to the rich, their money, their wealth, their possessions, none of them are eternal.

They hold no worth in heaven.

James urges the rich to write wrongs against those who labor for them, making sure to treat them fairly and give them their due.

...