Where Will Our Trouble Come From?

Have you ever heard someone say the phrase “I’m my own worst enemy?” Is there any truth to it?

The answer is yes. This is what we’ll address in James 1:13-18. We like to blame everything on someone else. Most times we give that credit to Satan, but other times we blame this on God. In all actuality, we do it to ourselves because of the choices we make. We have a free will and can choose for ourselves which choices and paths we take. No one makes us sin but ourselves. It’s the oldest battle – and continues to be the biggest in all aspects of life. Good versus evil. In every movie that has any action, there’s always a protagonist and an antagonist. A superhero and a villain. A good guy and a bad guy. Mr. Right and Mr. Wrong. It’s something we deal with on a daily basis. Do we follow the devil on our shoulder or the angel?

If you think back on movies that you’ve watched, did the superhero or the good guy ever bring trouble with them? Generally, no. Batman didn’t create trouble. It came when Poison Ivy, the Joker or the Riddler showed up. Dorothy didn’t create trouble on her way to Oz, it came with the Wicked Witch. God created Adam and Eve after his own image; they didn’t sin until the serpent came on the grounds with temptation. This lets us know that God is not the author of confusion or temptations. This is what we’ll discuss first in verse 13. I John 1:5 also echoes this thought. Satan can tempt us all day long, but only you make that choice of whether or not you will give in.

During our lesson, I had some of the ladies play Chutes and Ladders. The chutes represented sin because it was the quickest way to get across the board, but it only went down. The ladders represented our daily struggles because they had to climb, but in the end the reward was greater. The ladders were the things that projected you across the board, allowing you to climb closer to the goal of 100.