THANKFUL

 Chatting with Jesus

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Lord, most folks shake their heads and grumble about what your Word instructs us to do when facing life’s trials. Your teaching is unreasonable and goes against our nature. Some argue people in ancient times didn’t have problems like we have today. News cycles 24/7 remind us how dangerous a world we inhabit. Our woes greatly overshadow the banishments, persecutions, tortures, imprisonments, and deaths the first-century believers might have faced.

Lord, you are not buying that line of thinking, are you.

If your earthly brother James were with us today, I don’t think he would buy that reasoning either. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he wrote this truth that still applies today:

“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” (James 1:2-4 NLT).

Lord, if I told you I’ve always followed this teaching, you would roll your eyes, spitting out your drink. Because I’ve failed countless times to keep this godly principle, you keep giving me opportunity after opportunity until I get it right. This principle applies to believers only. Non-believers dismiss this precept of being joyful in trials as ridiculous.

Here is the key for Christ followers to keep this command: Your Holy Spirit living within us, opens our spiritual eyes to see you working in our trials, increasing our faith that you have a higher purpose in this trial, and making us a better representative of you in our world. That truth makes me joyful.

Amen, Jesus.