"Rooted In Truth"

"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever." (Psalms 52:8) Some say God does not have patience with those that do not endure testing and cannot resist temptations, but here is the truth of the matter: God is all about patience with those that are His children! And then you have those that might try to say if you do not endure testing and you cannot resist temptation, then there is no proof that you are a child of God. Based upon James 1:12-15, it might be rather easy to reach such a conclusion; but based upon the truth, conclusions are not played out in testing and temptations, they are totally based upon a persons faith in Jesus Christ, and in Christ Jesus alone! Besides, what James really means, and that which many overlook, is that we love God; you see, James is not far off from John's perspective about love being the key to understanding the truth; if anything, James uses more practical applications, things like what we say, how we treat others, and whether or not we actually care when we tell someone God Bless You. The truth about James 1:12-15 has more to do about temptation not being of God, but that God might test us with trials, which James opens that chapter with, but a trial is not the same as a temptation. Trials cause us to look to God as our strength, and are good for us because they build character and endurance; while temptations are of the devil, just as Eve was tempted in the garden, they are rooted in a lie, that lie being that doing this or that will give me pleasure; when in reality, doing it will rob me of peace, hope and joy, and it will make regret having done it. On the other hand, not enduring a test, or not resisting temptation does not take away our salvation, nor does prove anything except that we have no strength within ourselves. As Paul explains in Romans 7:24, saying, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Jesus Christ has, that's Who! You don't think that God does not know your weaknesses? He knows you better than you know yourself. The truth is based in Christ Jesus, who is glorified, who is standing at the right hand of the Father, and who is making intersession for every single one of those weaknesses, again and again and again; He will never give up on you, so don't you ever give up on trusting in Him... "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is in vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:23-27)