Monday, April 20, 2009

Is Your Faith Being Tried???

Last night in our services, we read through several passages of Scripture, but one stuck out that I wanted to share with you today.

It is found in James 1:2-7..."My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; (3) Knowing this , that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (4) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (5) If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. (7) For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord."

I know it seems like an odd thing to find pleasure in, but when we are tried and tested, we are doing so much of the time because of the stand we have in Christ. If we are living on "Easy Street", so to speak, maybe we should look at our lives a bit closer. We are promised that life will be tough and people will not accept us because of our walk with Christ.

However, we can glory that the trials we face will grow our faith, strength and patience. And notice what verse 4 states..."that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." When we rely on Christ to see us through these times, we realize that with Him we are complete. Like Psalm 23 states..."The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." or the Amplified states it like this..."THE LORD is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack." We shall lack nothing!!! It doesn't get much better, does it?

Continuing on in verse 5, we see that if we lack in wisdom we can ask God and will receive. Verses 6 and 7 does put forth the stipulation in receiving that wisdom, that we ask in an unwavering faith. For if we ask in unbelief, we shall not receive!

I found this passage comforting and eye-opening...because if I am lacking, all I have to do is ask the Lord for the guidance and HE WILL PROVIDE!!! The key to all of this is to ask in faith. May we allow the struggles we are facing today to make us stronger, more complete, and more perfect in our walk with Christ!

Take the time to share what God is doing in your life with someone else! And, as always, please let me know if you have a special prayer request I can word on your behalf today!!!

14 comments:

Wesley Fryer said...

This is great encouragement! I agree we need to focus on asking in faith, and then relying on God to provide.

Ben Stroup said...

If we are never pushed beyond where we are today, we will not grow. God has an amazing way of using the ordinary - getting stuck in traffic, the unexpected bill that comes in the mail, and the unplanned sickness - to call us back to Himself.

And it's not so much that we find "pleasure" in our struggles as much as when we survive the struggle, we treasure and celebrate the perspective we now have moving forward.

Good thinking!

Blessings, Ben.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing this Craig. What encouragement I personally drew from this.

Mark said...

I think the thing is that usually our faith isn't tried because we are unwilling to put ourselves in a place other than where we feel comfortable. God calls us beyond the comfortable to achieve His purposes. Sometimes we have to step out of the boat; James reminds us that God is there on the waters with us. Good thoughts you share.

Matt said...

Great encouragement, brother. So importbt to know that it's not that God doesn't give us more than we can handle...but rather, nothing more than He can handle. We must trust and find rest in Him. Thanks again for the encouragement.

Kevin said...

I love the song "Refiner's Fire" but I don't always like to be refined in the fire. :) This is the way God works though, isn't it? He turns up the heat in our lives so that the junk can be refined out! We need to trust Him completely through this process knowing that we will be more like Him in the end.

Russ Hutto said...

great post today! That's an encouragement isn't it? One thing we can be certain of in this life is trials! Not necessarily the daisies and roses Christianity that tickles the casual followers fancy, eh?

Thanks for posting this and also for taking the time to dig into the meat of this passage as well! Not only are trials certain but so is the ever present help of God if we would but ask!

Lewis Moore said...

Great message. I got your link from twitter. As Christians we should live a consistant life through times of lack and times of plenty, times of sickness and times of health, times when we are happy and times when things are not going so well. Our joy and hope comes from knowing Jesus. If we stay consistant in our faith during the hills and valleys of our life we will grow in wisdom.
The average spiritual life of a new Christian is about two years and then something comes allong to chrush faith. The secret is to stay consistant in our faith and to have a daily relationship with God.

David Dominguez said...

Great post! Too often we are discouraged by the hard times or difficult people we encounter. Yet, in those very moments, God is working to shape us more into His image. What a great reminder!

Lael Johnson said...

Good job. This isn't an easy topic to address, but it must be addressed. I agree with what has been said by others. It's the celebration afterwards, that I remember the most, the newfound humility, faith, perspective and/or whatever gifts the Lord chooses to give me as a result of teaching me to stand/struggle in and through faith to the point where He is leading me to go. Thanks for the post.

Larry Lewis said...

What a wonderful reminder of the support we have from our Lord...when we ask and accept in Faith. Nice post and very timely for me. Blessings.

milfredo said...

Wonderful site and great post. This touches me today especially. Just received news a few minutes ago that a friend of mine died of Cancer this morning.

Please pray for his family. His name...Mike Grayson.

God Bless All,
Milfredo

Rich said...

funny how the stress of trial sharpens us rather than defeats us...upside down

www.hiddentalentmusic.com said...

The radiologist said today that there is a 90% chance that the tumor in my wife's cervix is cancer and that after surgery they will be looking into radiation.
It is times like this that we learn how to stand on the word of God and draw strength from Him as well as our brothers and sisters in Christ.