Wise Words for Living - James 5:1-12

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A Stable Heart

By David Woods

Note: I am borrowing heavily from Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald, © 2003 for this lesson.

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The following comes from the preface of Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald:

One Saturday morning in my thirtieth year, an event occurred that changed my life.

I was a young pastor in a sizable church, and I had accumulated several weeks of busyness (I mean really busy!) in my work. Now, there is a busyness that reflects a plan of activity, a pattern of priorities, and a sense of purposefulness. It is a good and satisfying busyness through which one grows and increases competence.

But there is also a busyness (a destructive busyness, actually) that reflects a chaotic way of life - a way of doing in which one is simply responding to the next thing in the day. The next thing! It makes no difference whether or not it has significance; it's just the next thing, and one does it because it's there to do.

In that thirtieth year I was swept along in that second kind of busyness much like someone being swept along in the rapids of a raging river. Out of control. Fearful of capsizing. Feeling quite unprotected.

Day after day I had risen before the sun, and night after night I had fallen into bed long past the time when TV used to sign off. The hours of each day had been filled with business meetings, people with problems, speeches and talks that came one after another, and - added to all of this - the normal administrative details that dog anyone who is in charge of an organization.

But that wasn't all. During that time there had been the deaths of two homeless men in our community. I had supervised the arrangements for their burials. The utter senselessness of their lives and the sadness of their lonely deaths had touched me deeply and sent me into a dark, cloudy mood.

Oh, there was also a book that everyone said I should be reading. I'd purchased it and was reading snippets of it now and then. Its author seemed to attack everything I believed in and did it in such a convincing way that I felt the foundations of my entire belief system threatened. I couldn't get the book out of my thoughts.

All of it - the incessant work, that inky mood, those destabilizing thoughts - had done nothing but drain me: spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. Drained is certainly the operative word, and it was a surprising sensation because, like most young adults, I assumed that energy and vitality were boundless and inexhaustible. I'm embarrassed to admit that I was unconsciously convinced that one could live at this furious pace forever and do it without any serious consequences.

And now, as I said at the beginning, it was Saturday, and I sat at our breakfast table trying to act in a sociable way toward my young family yet, all the while, preoccupied with the stuff that lay ahead of me in the next hours. At the top of my mental pile were the events of Sunday, twenty-four hours away, when I would have to stand before audiences on three separate occasions and give presentations for which, so far, I had done no preparation.

It was at that moment that my wife, Gail, spoke and said something that was both true and provocative. "You've not spent much time with the children lately," she observed quietly.

And I began to cry. Not a few tears and not for a short while. I cried for at least four hours … great, wrenching sobs that came from near, as best I can figure, the bottomless pit of my soul. (pp. 1-2)

Skipping to page five, MacDonald writes:

And that's exactly where I was that Saturday morning. A young man with a fairly empty soul, rich in natural gifts but impoverished when it came to an inner space, from which there might flow a wellspring of wisdom, spiritual power, and Christian depth.

When I had exhausted myself of my tears, I spent the remainder of the day trying to squeeze meaning out of what had happened. What was the message in the flood of tears? What was it saying about the pace and direction of my life and work? Was it a warning, an instruction, a picture of unpleasant consequences yet to come.

Let me offer the most important insight that came from the day.

For the past two or three years I had been aware of my fast start in the ministry. I had also been aware that most - not all - of the men (in those days it was all men) who had graduated with me had gone on to assignments that were not as attractive as mine. In some sense many of them had not enjoyed the advantages that had come to me: a teaching father, natural giftedness, good connections. The result: They had to work harder, discipline themselves more carefully, and develop an inner depth that I had not found necessary to worry about.

But - and here was the kicker - it became alarmingly clear to me that day that it might not always be this way. Rather, I began to intuit that there would be a change in years to come.

Those who brought their lives into discipline or (and this is a favorite word of mine) intentionality would, more than likely, go on to long-term lives of fruitfulness, and their best years would be in the last half of their lives when discipline and depth paid off. And those like me, who relied heavily upon our natural giftedness, would reach some high point early in our lives and, more than likely, trail off into averageness for the last half of our days on earth. Of the former it would be said, "He [she] is a person of rich spiritual quality." Of me, given where I was, it would more likely be said, "Well, he certainly was a flash in the pan."

What an innocuous way to live out one's days - a displeasure to God and certainly a regrettable muddle for oneself. The thought that this might become my life scenario was intolerable. And it was that insight and that sense of revulsion that made that Saturday into a day that changed my life.

By the end of that day you could say that I had gone through something of a conversion experience. I would deliberately reorder my life, I determined, and I would do my best to jump the track from a life and work based on natural giftedness to one built on discipline and intentionality. (pp. 5-6)

As I began to study this lesson, I was captivated by the key verse - verse eight of our text. "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." As I continued studying this scripture, I was drawn to the words, "stablish your heart."

That word "stablish" has also been translated "establish" and "strengthen." I looked up the Greek word in a dictionary. It says it means "to make stable, to strengthen, to make constant or firm."

I want us to talk about having a stable heart this morning. My thesis is:

Big Idea: Heart stability enables us to survive in an unstable world.

I opened this lesson with the story of Gordon MacDonald, who when he was thirty years old was a young, promising preacher. But his inner life was in chaos. His heart was unstable.

Discussion: What are some of the reasons why a person's heart is or may become unstable?
(Lack of devotional life, presence of the carnal nature, issues that have not been resolved, etc.)

I find in our scripture text three thoughts about a stable heart. First, there is:

1. The Antithesis of a Stable Heart, vv. 1-6.

In other words, the first six verses give us a picture of a person whose heart is not stable.

The "rich men" whom James condemns are not Christians, of this we can be 99% sure.

Discussion: For what reasons did James condemn the rich men?

Discussion: Is being wealthy a sin? Why did James then single out rich people?

The Bible teaches us that each of us was born with a nature corrupted by an inclination to sin. However, I do not agree with those who teach man is "totally depraved."

The reason I do not agree is that if man were "totally depraved", he would do no good at all. I don't see that happening. Rather, I see people who are corrupted by the carnal nature.

Some have been more consumed by carnality and can be identified as "evil." Many more, however, have a good part of goodness in them, yet they are fallen.

I think I can safely say that most people want to be considered "good."

Discussion: Why would people who want to be known as "good" cheat their employees, live in sensual pleasure, and even murder the righteous?

I have tried to be careful to say that the "rich men" in our text are not Christians. Of that we can be almost completely, positively confident.

Such wicked people have unstable hearts because their nature is corrupted by carnality and because they have rejected God's way of living. However, while this is not a picture of a Christian, I believe we should take warning that if our hearts are unstable, we can gravitate toward acting in the same selfish ways.

In his book Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald spends a great deal of time discussing one's motivation. He describes in two opposite terms - being "driven" or being "called."

MacDonald describes a "driven" person this way:

1. A driven person is most gratified only by accomplishment.
2. A driven person is preoccupied with the symbols of accomplishment.
3. A driven person is usually caught in the uncontrolled pursuit of expansion.
4. Driven people tend to have a limited regard for integrity.
5. Driven people are not likely to bother themselves with the honing of people skills.
6. Driven people tend to be highly competitive.
7. A driven person often possesses a volcanic force of anger.
8. Driven people are usually abnormally busy, are averse to play, and usually avoid spiritual worship.

Gordon MacDonald says, "Among the more painful self-revelations of my life was that I am basically a driven person. I have, at one time or another, seen in myself almost all of the traits I have listed." (p. 37)

I must admit that I too have had some of these characteristics in my life - maybe not to the extreme, but in some degree.

I do want to issue a clarification concerning these points. MacDonald is not saying that is ungodly or unbiblical to be entrepreneurial or to be competitive or that if you are not a people person you are unspiritual. He is talking about taking things to the extreme.

For instance, I hope you want me, your pastor to be entrepreneurial. I know that I desire an initiative in the people I pastor. I don't want to spend my life maintaining the status quo. Neither do I want to be so geared toward success and forward thinking that I steamroll over others.

Driven peopple are driven ... by something. It may be trying to gain the approval they never felt by their parents. It may be a seeking of love. It may be a need or desire to "prove" something. It may be a desire to be successful or to be rich. The driving factors vary.

In contrast, MacDonald describes the "called person" this way:

1. Called people understand stewardship.

Concerning John the Baptist, he writes, "John's view of stewardship presents us with an important contemporary principle. For his crowds may be our careers, our assets, our natural and spiritual gifts, our health. So - and think before answering! - are these things owned, or merely managed in the name of the One who gave them?" (p.56)

2. Called people know exactly who they are.

"Those whose private worlds are in disarray tend to get their identities confused. They can have an increasing inability to separate role from person. What they do is indistinguishable from who they are." (p. 57)

3. Called people possess an unwavering sense of purpose.
4. Called people practice unswerving commitment.

2. The Attitude of a Stable Heart, vv. 7-12.

Notice the connection between patience and a stable heart in verse eight. "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts." The attitude of a stable heart is patience.

When I think about heart stability, I think of James 1:6-8 which says, "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

As long as our nature is corrupted by the inclination to sin, we will tend to be unstable, spiritually. However, I do not believe that entire sanctification solves all problems regarding heart stability. Yes, our nature may be pure of that inclination to sin, yet we have a history and we are human. There is still a need for patience in developing and maintaining a stable heart.

You see, I think that when we practice patience, we are alerted to the problem of our nature being corrupted by an inclination to sin. We want to be patient, but we realize we are not patient - something is wrong within. However, entire sanctification does not make us "patient." Rather, patience is something that must continue to be practiced and developed.

a. Our inspiration to be patient.

In verse seven, we find our inspiration to practice patience.

Read James 5:7

Discussion: I want you to picture with me the impatient farmer. What would an impatient farmer do - when sowing seed, when waiting for the crops to grow, when harvesting the crops?

Our instruction to be patient.

Read James 5:9

Discussion: How were you impatient this week?

Our example of patience.

Read James 5:10-11

Recently I have read through the book of Jeremiah in my private devotions. It is interesting to me that God told Jeremiah when He called him that the people would not obey his teaching. That sums up the effectiveness of Jeremiah's ministry.

Discussion: How does a person in a situation similar to Jeremiah's remain patient?

3. The Anticipation of a Stable Heart, vv. 7a, 8c, 9b.

We live in an unfair, unjust world. There are many, like the "rich men" whom James condemns in the beginning of this chapter who do evil. It might be tempting to envy them for their ease of life at times. It might be tempting to emulate them.

But we know that Jesus is coming again very soon. At that time, He will make everything right. He will judge those who do evil. He will reward us for our righteous living. Therefore, we wait in longing expectation for His return.

"On his deathbed, in great discomfort, and barely able to communicate, E. Stanley Jones managed to dictate some final thoughts that summed up his Christian journey.

"Employing the metaphor of a mountain climber's rope to describe the toughness of his spirit, he said, 'The innermost strands are the strongest. I need no outer props to hold up my faith, for my faith holds me.'"

"… Despite such courage, Jones would have been the first to acknowledge that it had not always been that way. In the early days of his life and ministry there had come a temporary sinkhole collapse. For more than a year he had languished in both spiritual and physical ineffectiveness. 'The spiritual sag brought on a physical lag,' he remembered. 'The outer collapse took place because the inner experience could not sustain it. I had made it a life motto that I would not preach what I was not experiencing, so the outer and inner came together in collapse.'" (p.146)

He said, "The innermost strands are the strongest. I need no outer props to hold up my faith, for my faith holds me." In this tumultuous world of instability, is your heart stable and secure in your faith in God?