{"id":3618,"date":"2011-12-29T00:40:43","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T06:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=3618"},"modified":"2011-12-08T14:48:28","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T20:48:28","slug":"count-it-all-joy-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/?p=3618","title":{"rendered":"Count It All Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.\u00a0\u00a0 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing\u201d (James 1:2-4).<\/em><\/p>\n

Those who have faced or are facing trials often look at these verses and say, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be kidding?\u201d\u00a0 James wasn\u2019t kidding. He knew there are lessons to be learned when our faith is tested. I\u2019ve heard that faith is like a muscle.\u00a0 The more it is exercised, the stronger it becomes.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0biblegateway.com<\/span> commentary on James 1 says:<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn’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.\u201d<\/p>\n

We certainly don\u2019t like to go through trials, but, when we do, we allow our faith to grow.<\/p>\n

Sue Winchester
\nMissouri<\/p>\n

PRAY TOGETHER:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.\u00a0\u00a0 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing\u201d (James 1:2-4). … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-devotional"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3620,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions\/3620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnac.org\/twg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}