Welcoming Trials...Thursday

Devotional...8/15/13

"We Can Even Welcome Trials"

James 1:2-8

I use to have a very difficult time with James chapter one verses two through eight for a couple of reasons.  First how are we suppose to count trials as joy and second what did it really mean to be double minded?  

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.                                         James 1:2-8

So I started meditating on His Word and asked him to explain it to me and this is what he had to say. When trials come our way we can consider it an opportunity for great joy.  Why you ask.

Do you know that under pressure our faith walk is forced into the open? It shows the world who we are, who we depend on.  It allows us to grow into who God created us to be.  Usually our first response is get me out of this.  What I have found by walking through trials I come out not smelling like smoke.  I come out victorious.  I come out knowing more of who I am in Christ.  I come out knowing what belongs to me as a daughter of the King.  I say let the process go on until we become mature and well developed, NOT deficient in any way - lacking nothing.

A great thing about our God is if we do not know what to do or if you do not know how to handle a particular trial all we need to do is ask our generous giving God.  He loves to help his children.  We will get his help without feeling foolish or guilty. What we must do is ask the Father boldly, believing without a second thought, that means no hesitating or doubting.  Doubting means "to be divided in one's mind" or "to debate."  The term does not describe a momentary doubt but a divided allegiance, an uncertainty  (NKJV Study Bible). Double mindedness means to have one foot in with God and one foot trusting self, you know those ABC plans or trusting the world.  We can not have it both ways.  Living in both worlds, we should not expect to receive anything from our Father God, but what we can expect is instability, uncertainty  frustration, confusion, fear, anxiety and constant conflict within.  When we are walking in both worlds, we can not hear the Father's voice clearly and sometimes not at all.  So how in the world could we expect to receive the answer.

 

One other thing I also learned during this time of meditation; God's wisdom-our answer may not always be an answer of escape but of how to walk through it to the end.

So, when we are in the mist of trials. get still before the Father. He has all the answers.

What I also have come to know is that God is NOT the one that brings the trials.  Trials come because we live in a fallen world.

Written by 

Kathryn Hanson

Song for Thursday morning...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ