Last week we looked at the start of Mom's journal entry on trials. We now move on to part 2. Here Mom looked again at James 1:2-12, and also Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.
James 1:2-12 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. 5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. 9 Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. 10 And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. 11 The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements. 12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
Verse 1-Consider it all joy....Rejoice in the blessings that accompany suffering. Consider-evaluate. Humanly, trials hurt, but from the Lord's view they help. Understand what God designed them to do and accomplish. God wants to use it to test our faith producing endurance and spiritual maturity.
Do I want to be transformed into the image of Christ? Yes! Yes! Yes!
I don't want to experience pain but since it's unavoidable in this fallen world, respond to it in a way that produces eternal benefits.
Verses 5-8 tells us that we can ask God for wisdom through the trials and each moment of our life. We need wisdom not only to know how to respond to suffering, to be able to see trials from the Lord's viewpoint and understand His purposes in allowing them. I want to profit from struggles, to come through with joy and victory, knowing the following truths:
1. God is in full control and will not allow it to go beyond His boundaries.
2. God has a specific purpose for my suffering.
3. Submit to God through it.
4. This situation is for my faith to prove genuine and grow stronger.
5. When I endure extreme pressure with unexplainable peace and joy, the Lord demonstrates His sustaining power to a watching world.
6. My difficulties are used by the Father to produce Christ-like character.
7. God will speak to me through all trials.
8. The Holy Spirit will enable me to survive but also to come out a conqueror.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
What season am I in? Whether a time of joy or sorrow, each season should motivate us to seek the Lord and trust Him.
Dear Lord, help me to turn to You not only in sadness, but also in joy. I know You give me both good times and bad to draw me to You and help me to grow. May I learn to trust You an all seasons of life. Amen.
From me: Every season needs faith to get me through.
My Mom was born in the earlier part of the 20th century. She was a little girl through the great depression, and had a Father and brothers who were alcoholics. Later in life she married my Dad, struggled to get pregnant and miscarried a few years after she had me. She had some struggles with alcohol herself. She was only in her early 60s when we lost my Dad. She then had to watch her daughter plunge into depression and addiction. Thankfully she also saw that same daughter escape that pit by the power of Jesus Christ. Her back always had problems, but in the last 10 years of her life she was in constant pain from multiple back problems, but it never slowed her down! Before she left for heaven (she became a Christian when I was about 16) she had had a difficult surgery for an aneuryem. She knew suffering, both physical and emotional. Even though she sometimes faltered in faith, she always came back to belief and trust. She was an amazing women and I miss her every day.
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