“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:2-4).
Those who have faced or are facing trials often look at these verses and say, “You’ve got to be kidding?” James wasn’t kidding. He knew there are lessons to be learned when our faith is tested. I’ve heard that faith is like a muscle. The more it is exercised, the stronger it becomes.
A biblegateway.com commentary on James 1 says:
“Isn’t it the desire of your heart to learn to live by faith and to be ‘a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ’ in a patient, disciplined, steadfast, faithful way? Now you have the reason to rejoice in the midst of trials! These trials provide the opportunity for the testing that will develop this quality of faith. To stop trusting and start worrying, to cease ministering and start withdrawing, to interrupt godliness and start selfishness, just because of one’s anxiety over the current trials, would be precisely the wrong course to take. The spiritual realities call for joy in the opportunity to learn perseverance.”
We certainly don’t like to go through trials, but, when we do, we allow our faith to grow.
Sue Winchester
Missouri
PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for final preparations for this year’s Christmas Joy events in Central Asia. Pray that God would grant open doors in spite of recent changes in laws concerning allowable religious activities.
