Enduring during times of testing
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. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 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. James 1:3-6
Trials in life often shake our faith. When faith is shaken, the desire to serve gets sidetracked. James was addressing in the letter Christians who became tentative in their faith due to hardships. They were scattered and left Jerusalem when the persecutions heightened. Difficulties in life could derail one’s faith. Life’s circumstances could put a halt on our thriving faith. It is easy to claim that we have faith when things are working well in life. But it will just be a matter of time that our circumstances change. It is during this unexpected turn in life that God wants us to be strong in our faith. This is why we are admonished to exercise faith in our day-to-day life. And when trials come, He wants us to ask Him for wisdom so we can cope and not be driven by doubts. One thing that difficulties in life could do to us is to lose perspective and not have the assurance that God is Sovereign over all that we are facing in life. The Scriptures remind us not to be overwhelmed with our present life but to have a perspective that anticipates what lies ahead. Once we look forward, we can see that God has a purpose on everything that is taking place in our lives. As James said, “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.” Looking beyond our circumstances will help us understand the reality of God’s presence and working in us and through us. Then it helps us see God’s promise of the life to come. “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18). Though trials in life are real and painful, realize that in all these God has a purpose.
Blessings,
Noel De Guzman www.my-wbc.com
Recent sermon uploaded at YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQdlU21ggHg
