A Rich Blessing

I'm in my fifth week of the James Precept Study and its been a rich blessing to study through this book at a time in my life that I'm striving to be patient and waiting on the Lord as we journey towards our next home. Go here to read up on the latest status.
 
While although waiting on the Lord isn't new to me, it doesn't get easier each time God brings me to a place of waiting on Him. We went through a time of waiting to come to the place where I'm at today of being home with my kids. During that trial of working while wanting desperately to be home, God taught me so much. Many of the things that I learned prepared me for homeschooling. I learned how to remain persistent in prayer, how to endure in difficult relationships, and how to trust God when your circumstances seem to be working contrary to God's Will. With each period of waiting I develop a deeper amount of patience which is interesting because as a young believer in my early 20s I would've considered myself the most impatient person anyone had every met!
 
Trials in a Christian's life are any number of circumstances that they may find challenging, uncomfortable, or stressful. Trials break the pattern of peace, comfort, joy, and happiness in one's life. It's an experience that they find they are not able to go through with ease or they experience difficulty in it. Trials may impact your emotions, your physical body, your finances, and your relationships. A trial could be something as simple as trying to get through the day without losing your temper or something as challenging as experiencing a life threatening disease. They occur within a Christian's life to test them and prove the very nature of their faith.
 
Do lost people have trials? Yes, but as a Christians we're accountable to God for our response while going through trials. Our response shows us what our faith is made of and to the outside world what and whom we put our trust in. Trials are a test of our "genuineness" as a believer. If we crumble and forsake God in a trial, the question is were we a believer to begin with? A believer's faith in a trial stands and is strengthened, it does not crumble. 
  
There are so many practical lessons just in the first Chapter of James:
 
1) We should consider it all joy when we go through trials.
If the purpose of a trial in a Christian's life is to make them more Christ-like, we should be joyful that the Creator of the Universe has orchestrated the events that are trials in our life to mold and shape us. Yes, they are uncomfortable and not very much fun at all, but the fruit that they produce far outweighs the momentary afflictions that trials produce.
 
2) Trials test our faith.
If you think to grade school to "test day" and how nervous you may have been to get that graded test back. After staying up late night after night reading and studying for the test you would reach the day when the teacher would hand back the graded test. What grade did you get? No matter how much or how little you studied, you wanted the final grade to be good.

Its the same with our faith. When we stand before the Lord and give an account of our life, we want our Heavenly Father to say that we've done well at serving Him and honoring Him with our life. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6) and He is pleased with a faith that trusts in difficult times. If our faith is not tested, then how can it be trusted to be a genuine faith.

3) Trials in life produce endurance in us.
Over the course of my life as I've "attempted" to stay in shape, I have made many attempts of gaining enough endurance to be able to run long distances and for the life of me I just can't build it up enough. I think the farthest that I've come with running is about a full mile, but let me tell you, I was a tired fool by the time I made it to the 1 mile mark.  Every ounce of my inner being yells at me to "stop, stop, stop running" when I try to run. I don't think I'm cut out to be a runner.

Trials are like stepping out on the track over and over again. As your heart, lungs, and legs are exercised around the track, body parts are strengthened to withstand even longer distances each time that you run. Your flesh may not like act of running, just like your fleshly body and emotions don't like the stress and pain that comes with trials, but your are strengthened and drawn closer to the Lord in it. 

4) As we suffer within a trial we are made complete, perfect, and lacking nothing as God transforms us into His image.
What a beautiful promise!
 
5) If we don't know what to do in a trial, God instructs us to ask God for wisdom and He promises to give us wisdom generously.
God does not leave us chasing the wind in a trial, not knowing what to do. He instructs us to ask Him for wisdom and He gives us the wisdom we need in a trial generously. There is no better place to go for wisdom then the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
 
6) When we ask God for wisdom in a trial, we are to ask in faith and not doubt that God will answer us.
As we ask for wisdom, our flesh may be tempted to doubt that God will provide us the knowledge we need. We must ask in faith and not worry later that we won't get an answer.
 
7) A believer living in humble circumstances should rejoice in the fact that they are rich in Christ.
 
8) We should never think in a trial that God is tempting us to sin.
We are tempted when we're enticed and carried away by our own lust. This lusting after our own desires gives birth to sin and leads to separation from God.
 
9) We should examine ourselves daily to see if there is any sinfulness in our lives so that we can humbly receive God's Word into our hearts and be changed.
 
10) As we intently look at God's Word, we are changed.
Its not a surface level change where we look at the Word in agreement and then live however we feel. A heart change takes place on the inside where we're beckoned in our inner being to be obedient to the Lord in whatever way He calls us. 

This call may beckon us into a trial that tests us beyond what we think we can handle. God promises though that He won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we're able to handle and he will provide a way of escape so that we may endure (1 Cor 10:13).
 
So, let's count it all joy as we endure in this life...