The James Series | Episode 1: Washed, Seasoned, and Still Waiting

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In this episode of Gospel Girlies, we begin The James Series with James chapter 1.

Before faith is seen publicly, it is often refined privately. James introduces us to what we might call the "washing stage" of faith — the season where God removes what doesn't belong before the seasoning ever begins.

In this conversation, we talk about trials, temptation, spiritual maturity, and why the pressure we experience in life often reveals what our faith is rooted in.

If you've ever felt like life slowed down, like God was examining your motives, or like you're in a preparation season you didn't ask for, this episode is for you.

Let patience finish its work.

Episode reflection question:

What is God washing out of your life right now?

Scripture Focus:

James 1

Share this episode with a friend who is in a preparation season.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Hey girlies! Welcome back to Gospel Girlies, the Gospel Center podcast for women. I'm your host, Angel, and around here we're about honest faith, real life, and choosing obedience even when the road doesn't make sense. So get ready to have your hearts filled, your souls lifted, and your faith ignited. I see you and I appreciate you. And of course, to my returning listeners, welcome back. And to anyone new tuning in, welcome home. Before we get into today's lesson, I just want to say happy fourth birthday to Blaze. Happy birthday, baby boy. I hope you enjoyed your day. Okay, so are y'all ready to get into the episode? Because I am today. We're stepping into something new. Welcome to season two. This is the James series from heat to harvest, a series about learning to live what we say we believe. Because it's one thing to say we have faith. It's another thing to let that faith mature. And if we're honest, some of the seasons that feel like setbacks are actually the exact moments God is preparing our faith the most. And we may not understand it, but it's not when everything is easy, it's not when everything is comfortable. And I know we like to be comfortable, but when life starts applying pressure, that real pressure, that's exactly where James begins. And let me tell y'all, James does not play, it does not sugarcoat, it is practical, it is spiritual. James is faith in motion. So over the next several weeks, we're walking through all five chapters, and then of course, we're gonna bring it all together. But we're not just reading it, we're cooking it. And I decided to start with the book of James. Actually, I really didn't have any expectations. I just knew that I wanted to get deeper into my word and have a better understanding of what God wanted me to know, what God wanted to show me. But I got conviction, I got clarity, and I also got revelation. And that's when I knew that I wanted to walk through the book of James with my girlies together. So let's walk into a kitchen for a second, and let's think about the steps it takes to cook chicken. Now, when y'all get ready to cook that chicken over rice, that good fried chicken, or whatever piece of chicken that you may be cooking, you don't just throw it in a pan and hope for the best. Well, at least I hope you don't. You wash it, you season it, you baste it, you adjust the heat, you let it cook low and slow, then you let it rest. And your favorite step is probably serving it to see the looks on everyone's faces when they taste that good old chicken you just made. But you should know that every step matters. Now, before I lose you, just stay with me. I'm not being cute. In this series, the chicken represents your faith, your belief, the part of you that says you trust God. And here's the anchor line, and this is important. So go ahead and pause the episode. Go grab your notebook, your sticky note, your napkin. You can even grab a white t-shirt because you need to take some notes. Got it? All right, let's continue. Faith is rooted in the heart, refined in pressure, and revealed in behavior. So when we talk about washing, seasoning, heat, and resting, I'm talking about what God does to mature your faith. And if we are going to cook faith properly, we cannot skip steps. And James one is the washing stage. It does not start with blessings, favor, or ease. It starts with the washing. And if you think about it, we never really talk about the washing stage deeply because we all love seasoning, we all love serving, we but washing, that part feels uncomfortable. And if you ever touched a raw piece of chicken, yucky. Okay. Um, and James opens with this bold statement. It says, Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. But I had to realize that James is teaching us something foundational. It isn't saying be happy about sin. It's saying when life brings many kinds of tests, don't see them as meaningless. Okay. Y'all, that just hit me because I received an email this morning that kind of irritated my soul to the core. Um, and had me feeling a little discouraged, but uh reading that reading James and then making that revelation, it just it confirms something in me for real. But trials test faith, tested faith builds endurance, and endurance produces maturity. In other words, pressure exposes what you are rooted in, and maturity doesn't mean flawless. I know we like to think we're flawless, but it means fully developed. Okay, washing removes impurities and what doesn't belong, which of course is necessary before flavor ever touches it, and then the book of James also makes something very clear. Trials test your faith from the outside, and temptations come from desire on the inside, and I don't know about y'all, but like myself, sometimes we mix those two things up. Sometimes we blame God for temptation when temptation didn't start with him, it started with you and what's on the inside of you. Um trials are situations we walk through. Temptation is what those situations try to pull out of us. So, for example, you know, if you're going through a financial struggle, um, that may be your trial, but the temptation inside of that trial um might be dishonesty, fear, anxiety, or trying to take control instead of trusting God. And I've definitely been there before. But faith and its response would look different. It might look like honesty when cutting corners would be easier, peace when fear is loud, or trust when control feels safer. Same situation, different responses. The trial didn't create the temptation, it revealed what was already inside, and knowing the difference helps us respond differently. So temptation isn't God setting traps, okay? It's desire pulling on something already inside of us, and that's not condemnation, it's clarity and responsibility. So if you think about it, desire, if entertained, can sometimes become sin. And repeated sin leads to separation. And as for me, I don't want to be separated from God at all. And I also want to be clear, I'm not talking about healthy desires like marriage, purpose, or growth. I'm talking about desires that pull you outside of God's will. Desires that whisper, you deserve this. Even when it costs you integrity. He's really trying to help us. And right after that, though, he says, Every good and perfect gift comes from above. Shadows shift. God doesn't. If something pulls you towards destruction, it isn't from him. If it produces life, growth, wisdom, that's God. And then James continues on by bringing it even closer to everyday life. He says we should be quick to listen, open them ears, slow to speak, close them lips, and slow to anger, control them emotions. Because obedience to God does not only show up in prayer, it shows up in how we respond, how we react when we are frustrated, how we speak when we feel misunderstood, how we carry ourselves when emotions run high. And James reminds us of something important. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. In other words, reacting emotionally might feel justified in the moment, but it rarely produces the kind of outcome God is trying to develop in us. And then we have an illustration that makes it even clearer. So by comparing hearing the word and walking away unchanged, it's like looking in the mirror and forgetting what you saw. Like, really think about that and how weird that would be. Let's just say you get ready to go out to church, go eat dinner with your friends or go on a date, and you look in the mirror before leaving the house and realize something is out of order. Lipstick stained on your teeth, hair sitting on your lip, your eyebrow is up too high, but you walk away like you didn't even see it. That's what James is saying happens when we hear truth, but don't apply it. The word reveals things, it exposes attitudes, it highlights habits, and it shows areas where God is shaping us. And that right there, that's the real God ain't through with me yet. But if we hear it, agree with it, and maybe even say, Mmm, that was good, but go right back to live in the same way, we have missed the purpose of the mirror. And I want to say this: the mirror is not meant to shame you, it's meant to show you what needs attention, and the word of God works the same way, it reveals so we can respond, and that's why real faith shows up in behavior: controlling your tongue, helping the vernible, and not letting society reshape your convictions. Real faith is love outward and integrity inward. And when I say love outward, I mean that's compassion and action. And integrity inward is consistency in private because it's real easy to look holy in public, but integrity inward proves whether faith is real when nobody is watching. Well, it's always somebody watching because God is always watching, but y'all get what I'm saying. But now that I look back, I was actually being cleaned up, and I can see that God was doing deeper work than I realized at the time. You know, things were being removed, motives were being examined, and desires were being exposed. Not because God was trying to punish me, but because he was preparing me. And preparation often feels uncomfortable when you're in the middle of it. Who so uncomfortable. I never enjoyed it because I didn't really understand. Washing feels cold, it feels exposed, it feels unnecessary when you're ready to move forward. Because in our minds, we think, God, I'm ready, let's go. And when we go, we go right out and fall on our foreheads, and God is sitting there looking at the heart saying, There is still something I need to clean first. Before God flavors your faith publicly, He washes your motives privately, and that part of the process is quiet, it's unseen, but it's necessary. How the song go? Even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop, you never stop working. Y'all, let God do his work. What we say? Let God do his big one. Yeah, let's do that. Let God do his big one. Because you don't cook dirty chicken. I really hope y'all don't cook dirty chicken. Y'all please clean that chicken before y'all cook it and feed them children and that man or your family. Cuz we ain't going to hospital. Okay, but for real though. Um, here's some reflection questions for you guys this week. Number one, what is God washing out of you right now? Like, what is something that he is trying to remove and you keep on hanging on to because you just don't understand that you don't need that no more. Number two, are you trying to skip the rinse stage? That's like going through the car wash and trying to put your car and drive and speed through when they get the rinse in because you're ready to go. Nah. Cause now you riding around with soap on your body and your car don't look clean. Stay in that rinse stage, y'all. And then number three, are you asking for seasoning and visibility while resisting purification? Let patience finish its work, not rush it, not control it, not resent it, finish it. And I also want to encourage you all to take a moment this week and sit with James chapter one. Not just this episode, like open the chapter for yourself, read it slowly, take notes, and ask God what he might be washing in you and trying to show you in this season. Because sometimes the most powerful revelation does not come from what someone else says about scripture. We might get that, mm-that's good, or ah, that, oh, okay. But the real mmm, ah, mmm, okay, comes when you sit with it for yourself. And that is when like the Holy Spirit shows you when you sit with the word on your own. And you might discover that what feels like a delay is actually God preparing something deeper in you. Today we talked about preparation, about getting your heart ready for God's word, like preheating in oven before cooking. But this week, do not rush to rinse. Let God do the quiet cleaning work. And next time, now that we're all clean, speak and spin, we'll start seasoning. And trust me, seasoning is where faith starts to show. Okay, and before. Before we wrap it up today, girlies, lean in real quick because I have something I want to share with you guys. And I have to ask first, are you a wife? Are you becoming a wife? Or are you preparing and praying for that season? If so, I have something special for you. My pastor, Pastor Jeanette Howard, is hosting a wife's class called The Formation of an Irresistible Woman on March 27th, 2026 at 7 p.m. Both in person and online. We got options. So registration opens Thursday, March 5th, and this one you do not want to miss. So make sure you're following the podcast Instagram because the registration link will be posted there as soon as it goes live. I'll also update the show notes once the registration opens. So save the date, bring an open heart, and come ready to grow in wisdom and grace as God builds you from the inside out. And let me know if you do attend in the comments, DM me on the Instagram page. Let me know. And then also let me know how it registers with you, you know. Thank y'all for tuning in to this week's episode. Of course, it always means a lot that you chose to spend some time with me and God. And if it connected with you, please leave a review and let me know how it resonated with you in real life. Don't forget to follow the podcast and follow us on Instagram at GospelGirlies for daily encouragement and updates. And if you want that link, you got to follow the podcast. Okay? As always, adventure and faith begin today. Remember to walk boldly, live faithfully, and step into God's plan for you because it is greater than anything you could ever imagine. I'll see you next time on Gospel Girlies Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Bye.