James 1:2-4 NLT
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
This is a picture of coming to the end of ourselves.
When troubles come >> Not a matter of if, but just a matter of when.
”…it is an opportunity for great joy.”
What brings the ”opportunity for great joy” into reality?
It is the manner in which we face our troubles. It is our attitude and faith.
When we face our troubles with the understanding that our problems are there to strengthen us and create a higher capacity within us, we start to look at our problems with a little more openness to what God is trying to teach us.
This will require a greater level of faith every time. And with each step forward in faith, He will reveal His power more and more.
Our ability to keep ourselves focused on what it is that God is doing and less on what makes us comfortable will result in our ultimately being ”fully developed,” needing nothing” in good times, as well as the bad.
What takes it from an ”opportunity” and a ”chance”?
It is the submitted and humble attitude that we work out our troubles with. When we fuss and fight against this trouble, we significantly reduce the ”opportunity” and the ”chance” to grow.
Look at the attitude that we are to face our challenges with:
Matthew 6:16 NLT
”And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.”
This is always about the work that God is doing and not about our ability to persevere.
The greater witness is that when others hear about the challenges you have worked through, they would have never guessed that you were going through it.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t reach out for help, but the first and most effective help you will receive will be from God through His Word.
Galatians 6:2-5 NLT
Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.
We are to lean on each other, but in the end, you will become a product of your conclusions; make sure that your conclusion is based on a solid Biblical foundation with a proper, humble, and submitted attitude before God.
Here’s the good news, God’s will, will be done, and He will continue to give you the ”opportunity.” and the ”chance” to ”grow” until it happens.
Dear Lord, help me keep my focus on Your coming glory. Help me look past my current struggles, knowing that they are there to strengthen me and ”fully develop” my faith in You.
Give me the strength to press into You, knowing that the Spirit living inside of me is greater than the spirit living in the world.
In the loving name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen!! 🙏🏻❤️
