Good Morning. My name is Bill Barrick and I was asked to give you a devotional thought from the book of James chapters 4 and 5.
KEY VERSES:
James 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
REFLECTIONS:
My dad coached all the baseball teams I was on up through high school. I played shortstop one summer, and during a stretch of games it seemed that every ball hit to me I wound up flinging wildly over the first baseman’s head or into the dirt for an error. I got so bad that when I went out into the field to my shortstop position all I could think about was NOT MAKING AN ERROR. “Please don’t hit the ball to me,” I’d think before every pitch.
All my well-meaning teammates had plenty of advice about what I was doing wrong: ”Don’t do this or don’t do that.” I was totally focused on what NOT TO DO AND WHAT I WAS DOING WRONG. No amount of avoiding the wrong seemed to help. It was hopeless! Seeing my frustration and the games we were losing, Dad took me aside and simply said, “Don’t focus on what you are doing wrong…keep concentrating on the good things you’re doing for the team like hitting and running the bases and encouraging the other guys on the team.”
APPLICATION:
In my own Christian life I’ve expended so much energy and prayer trying to avoid sin and things that displease God that, too often I’m not focused on doing the “right thing.” James 4:7 says “…resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Rather than resisting the devil by focusing only on what not to do, I’ve learned that “doing the good I know I should do” puts me on the offensive when battling Satan’s evil darts. Now I’m praying more that God shows me the good things I should be doing rather than only resisting the wrong things.
Thank you for being a part of the 100-Day Challenge. Let’s resist the devil by doing the good we know we should.
In Christ,
Bill Barrick
FAVORITE BIBLE CHARACTER: Noah
FAMILY: Wife, Jane; Sons, Wilbur, Hank, Matt, Steve (in Heaven)
OCCUPATION: Graphic Artist and Teacher
HOBBIES: Piano, Travel, Keeping our roof repaired
AREA OF MINISTRY: Encouraging
FAVORITE BOOK IN BIBLE: Genesis