"Let It Grow"

Pastor Ryan Galashan

Scripture: James 1:1–18 (NLT)

• Genuine faith is never just belief in theory; it is embodied action worked out in everyday life.

1. Who is James and who is he writing to?

• James writes not to the comfortable, but to the scattered believers under real pressure.

• Reading: James 1:1 (NLT)

2. Give It a Chance

• Trials and testing are guaranteed, but spiritual maturity (telos—wholeness and completion) is not automatic.

• You cannot manufacture growth, but you can cooperate with what God is doing through patient endurance.

• Reading: James 1:2–4, 12 (NLT)

3. What Growing Faith Draws On

• Generous Wisdom: God gives freely without rebuke when we ask with faith in God alone (James 1:5–8 NLT).

• True Identity: Mature faith does not depend on shifting circumstances like wealth or poverty, but on God's evaluation (James 1:9–11 NLT).

4. The Other Thing That Grows

• God never tempts us; temptation stems from our own inward desires.

• Two things can grow in our lives: endurance leading to life, or sin allowed to mature into death.

• Reading: James 1:13–15 (NLT)

5. God Gives Good Gifts (He's the source)

• God does not change or cast shifting shadows; He gives good and perfect gifts.

• He birthed us through His true Word as the first fruits of His harvest.

• Reading: James 1:16–18 (NLT)

  Bottom Line: God planted the seed. So let it grow.

Next Steps This Week

• Stop manufacturing: Stop trying to create what only God can plant; surrender the pressure to perform.

• Name what you're watering: Identify one destructive desire you need to starve, and one work of God you need to stop resisting.

• Get into the Word: Re-read James 1 (NLT) slowly throughout the week to feed the seed He has planted.