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Real Devotional 12

by David Joynt on May 12, 2022


JAMES 1:9 | 9 Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up,

Circumstances will change around us throughout our lives. How will we construe those changes? James envisions economic examples. How will the person at the bottom of the social scale react to a     meteoric rise? Will she think her success is purely a natural product of her brilliance and hard work, fully deserved and something she can boast about?

Or will she see her success as the gift of a great God who has “raised her up”? (The very same one who gives to all generously and freely) . Will her rags-to-riches story make her more grateful and humble, more generous and helpful?

How have you handled success?

When you tell your story, how do you frame it?

Is God at the center of that story?

Tags: god, story, success

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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