Riverside Community Church Blog

Since we’re in the book of James right now as a church, I thought there is no better time than now to talk about trials and suffering. I will never proclaim to be an expert on this topic but it’s a topic we have to talk about.  The reality is that we will all have trials in our life and experience some kind of suffering throughout our lives-That’s the bad news...but there is good news too I promise!

 

James 1:2-4 says 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. 

 

Trials and suffering do have a way of chipping away at us, growing our endurance and most importantly growing us closer to our Heavenly Father and growing our faith in Him.

 

I remember being in the midst of year two of a pretty intense battle with Lyme disease.  Sitting on my bed, I had a conversation with God which went something like this, “God I don’t like this, but I trust you.”  It was that day that I decided that this Lyme journey would not be wasted.   Through this very difficult trial, God would use this journey.  God would use this Lyme journey to glorify himself and to grow me as a Chistian and to grow me closer to Him.  I developed a deeper dependency on God like I have never known before. I developed a trust in God that I had never experienced.  I leaned into scripture and learned more about God’s heart toward me and what His promises are in the Bible.  All of these things are invaluable! 

 

We all have a choice in the midst of our trials and suffering-will this trial be wasted? Will we choose joy? Joy is not happiness.  Joy is not walking around with a fake smile pretending that everything is “fine” when everything is not.  Joy is deep contentment in Jesus and who he is and what he did for us on the cross rather than who the world says we are or what is happening around us.  Joy comes from the Holy Spirit and abiding in God’s presence and gleaning hope from God’s word.

 

Today I encourage you to take time to be with God.  Get to know him and his heart for you.  Pray to him.  Talk with him.  Share your heart and grow in relationship with him so that in the midst of trials you can say “Lord, I don’t like this but I trust you.”

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