Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Finding Joy and Patience in Life's Trials

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1:1-4

There are times when I truly long for what life must have been like in the Garden of Eden.  No worries about work, income, where food would would come from, there wasn't even necessarily a need for shelter.  Things were just perfect.  Children would have been conceived in joy and every pregnancy would have had a happy painless ending.

Unfortunately life is no longer Eden, because of sin, we all face trials.  How we respond to them however is the important part.  Trials can do one of two things to the Christian, it can make us bitter or make us better.  God is not the author of the problems in our life, but if he is our ally these trials can be used for good.

We can take great comfort in knowing that all things work together for good, (Romans 8:28) and even in our darkest hour, good things can come as a result.  It's natural to want to avoid adversity, but as Christians we must find joy in our current situations.  Our God is bigger than anything we are overwhelmed with, and our God can use any problem we are faced with and make anything beautiful in his own time.

Lord help me find joy in the trials you've allowed in my life.  Allow patience to have her perfect work so I might be a better servant to my family and to you. 


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