Have your Bible ready to reference the scripture for this lesson. Scripture: James 1:12-18

In James 1:12-15, the writer tells us that God will reward those who endure temptation.  Those who love God and hold true to Him will be rewarded with a crown of life.  We are admonished never to blame God for temptations because God never tempts people to move away from Him.  Temptations arise when we give in to our own desires, and that giving in results in sinful actions, which will lead to spiritual death if we allow the sin to grow and control us.

Now James tells us not to be misled.  We should always remember that good, complete or perfect things that come our way come from the Father above as gifts to us.  Temptations are not good and perfect in their purposes.  The wisdom we seek, patient endurance and stable dependency on God are.

We should not be misled into thinking bad purposes, like temptations, come from God.  He desires to give us the good gifts, not harmful things.  As creator, God is more than able to help us in our desires to gain wisdom and endurance.  If He is able to speak stars into existence, then He is able to give us good and perfect gifts.  

He does give us good gifts because He never changes.  He doesn’t move around changing His perspective like a moving light that casts a shadow in different locations depending on where the light is.  God always is constant, never changes His character and will always shed light everywhere at one time.  He doesn’t cast shadows.  He casts light.

As a continuation of his comments on God’s character, James then reminds us we have been born spiritually through God’s true word.  That word is Jesus. The Apostle John tells us that the Word of God was in the beginning with God, was present at creation, was part of the “creative force” that brought everything into existence, became flesh and dwelt among mankind as the Living Word of God.

We are born again through faith in the living Word of God.  And because of that new birth, we become God’s prized possession, the Bride of the Lamb, the Church Jesus is building, adopted members of the family of God.

Those who have been born spiritually through faith in Jesus are special to God.  We all probably have one or two items tucked away in our dresser or chest at home that are special to us.  It might be a photo of a departed loved one. It might be an award we received years ago.  It might be a card a child made at church for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.  

Those items are things which we simply do not want to lose.  They may carry very little monetary value, but they hold tremendous value in our hearts.  We are like that to God.  He values us.  We are His prized possessions out of all His creation.

Because we hold a special place in God’s eyes, He gives us good and perfect gifts.