A Word of Encouragement

March 23, 2026

Parrot - Victoria, BC - Aug 2001

Grace, Hope & Peace, Friend;

James wrote that we should be glad "when you encounter various trials" because those trials - allowed by God - test our faith and produce endurance, making us "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-3) Like a father who loves his children, God allows trials in out lives to develop (discipline/train) us. (Proverbs 3:12)

Later in that chapter, James continued,

Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.
	James 1:22

Don't be hypocritical. If you hear what God teaches you but don't do what He says, you are like a person who looks in a mirror - see what God is trying to change - but walk away - ignoring the ugliness. (James 1:23-24)

Avi Ad - Eternal Father - train me as a 'doer' not just a 'hearer'.

The one who looks at the perfect law of freedom and remains committed to it - thereby demonstrating that he is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of what that law requires - will be blessed in what he does.
	James 1:25 (ISV)

Be a 'doer' not just a 'hearer'.