“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.”
Let’s not pretend here…no one likes facing adversity…no one likes a bad day, a health struggle, or financial trouble…no one likes being laid off, watching a friendship dissolve, or worrying about how to pay that bill sitting on the table. Regardless of what all those Gatorade or Nike commercials say, we don’t like adversity, struggle, or hardship. Rather, we would prefer things to go smoothly…a relatively uneventful day where we go through the motions, get paid, eat a good meal, and rest our heads on the pillow without a care in mind. But we don’t always get what we want in this life. Instead most of us get a descent share of struggle and adversity…and we tend to look at this unfortunate “situation” as a negative…we don’t like it and we want it to move on as quickly as possible. But as the latter part of the text above states, sometimes we must endure difficulties in order to be molded into greater people…to have our faith bolstered…to bring us closer to the plan God has for our lives. So if God is involved…as the text implies above…then we don’t go the road alone…we have a partner, or better titled a “Leader”, guiding us through the adversity. And when we come out from the shadows in the end, we are BETTER off, rather than worse off. Through the grace of God, we have grown, expanded, developed, and stretched into a better person…into a person better equipped to serve our merciful and loving God. So the next time we are in a period of adversity, may we strain to put out a little smile, knowing that God is walking with us and working through us to make the days ahead brighter. To God be the glory!
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