Don’t Waste Your Trial

When your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

James 1:4

TRIALS ARE INEVITABLE AND INESCAPABLE. We have no power to determine their size and scope. They often burst upon us with little or no advance warning. But we can choose what we do with our trials.

James, leader of the early church in Jerusalem, cautioned his people against shortcutting God’s work of sanctification. He reminded them that trials can be the very tools God uses to shape the character of His children. But there’s a catch. We have to trust the process and remain patient.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who—when blindsided by hardship—complain, resist, and push away from God, seeking temporary relief in substances, distractions, or friendships; and those who cling to God under the same circumstances.

Make no mistake, patient endurance isn’t a Pollyanna, head-in-the-sand approach to suffering. It isn’t a call to maintain a fake smile when sorrowful. Trials can crush the soul, dredging hidden idols to the surface and provoking soul-piercing questions. But the wise man of God chooses to filter his emotions through the truth that God is sovereign and good, no matter how things look. A wise man of God trusts the process whereby God reveals the false gods that people are tempted to trust in, so that we might learn to put all of our trust in Him, the only one worthy of it.

BOTTOM LINE

Trials can be a source of either sanctifying joy or unending discontentment. Don’t waste your trials.

Moment of Strength: James 1:1-13