Shalom,


The answer to success in any and every area of our lives can be found in Psalm 105:4:


4 Seek, inquire of and for the LORD, and crave Him and His strength (His might and inflexibility to temptation); seek and require His face and His presence [continually] evermore.


Everything we need can be found IN HIM! We need to find out who WE are because of the Covenant we have with Almighty God through the Blood of Jesus of Nazareth! Verse 8:


8 He is [earnestly] mindful of His covenant and forever it is imprinted on his heart, the word which He commanded and established to a thousand generations


He will ALWAYS do HIS part! We need to consistently do OURS! Amen!


I really like the Message Bible for this next portion of James 2! Martin Luther threw out the book of James because he thought it added something WE do to be saved. Works are just the outward expression of a real faith! I think this explains faith/works very well! James 2:14-26:

14 Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? 15 For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved 16 and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup — where does that get you? 17 Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? 

18 I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department."

Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. 


19 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? 20 Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? 


21 Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? 22 Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? 23 The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." 24 Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? 


25 The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape — that seamless unity of believing and doing — what counted with God? 26 The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse. 

So let's be DOERS of the WORD of GOD so that our "works" will proclaim our "faith" in HIM! Amen! Here is a song from Hillsong United called "Alive In You":

Jeremiah 18-20 shows the prophet obediently delivering God's message to the people and suffering for it. He began to lament and to wish that he had never been born, but God is faithful! I found this in the Bible Exposition Commentary:  

"Why came I forth out of the womb?" is an easy question to answer: because God had a special purpose for your life and designed you to fulfill it (Jer 1:4-5; Ps 139:13-16). God makes no mistakes when He calls His servants, and we should take care not to question His wisdom. All of us have had times of discouragement when we've felt like quitting, but that's when we must look beyond our feelings and circumstances and see the greatness and wisdom of God. As V. Raymond Edman, former president of Wheaton College (Ill.), often said to the students, "It's always too soon to quit."


And it is! 

Don't ever quit, no matter how bad things SEEM to be! God is usually NOT early, but He is NEVER late! Count on it!

Shalom in Him!