WHEN TROUBLES COME

James 1:2-4 Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

We have two choices when troubles come. We can embrace them and learn from them or we can complain about them and feel sorry for ourselves. We don’t like troublesome times, but if we see them as opportunities to learn and grow, they can bring joy to the soul.

We must learn this very valuable lesson in life. Faith grows best under adversity. When we are forced to live by faith and not sight, we learn how to depend on Christ and not ourselves. Until we get to the point where we have to admit our helplessness, we will never grow in faith. A needy faith is a growing faith. Unless we need the Lord, we won’t discover the love and ability of Christ to make our lives better. When we get to the point where we can admit our need for Christ, we begin to flourish in grace.

We need troublesome times so that we can gain spiritual strength and endurance. We need to get to the point where we are steadfast in Christ regardless of life’s circumstances. We need to be able to be ready for whatever comes our way.

We stifle the growth of our faith when we avoid life’s troublesome times. If we were to expend as much energy on dealing with our difficulties as we do avoiding them, we would be life conquerors. We would be able to stand tall and firm and meet our troubles head on. We would learn more about the faithfulness, steadfastness and power of Christ to help us.

Don’t avoid troublesome times. Instead, let the Spirit of Christ work in you through them so that you can grow in faith and become better equipped to deal with life without wavering.