Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4, NIV)
Golf and life present us with a series of events that shape who we are and what we truly believe. In golf we are tested by bad bounces, windy conditions, lack of confidence, or an inflated sense of our own ability. That pretty much sums up life as we experience it. Just when we think we have it all figured out and it seems like it should be our time to excel, something like a worldwide pandemic comes at us, throwing out all the things we so desperately thought we could control.
Hopefully we will see an end to this trial soon, but James in our scripture for today points out what our attitude should be about the frustration we have all experienced. He tells us to consider it pure joy. We are instructed to rejoice in this time of frustration and trial. That sounds almost ridiculous. Why should we be joyful in the face of the difficulties we are challenged by?
We should rejoice in the trial because it offers us the chance to persevere in our walk with God.Our faith is tested in trials and tribulation. We don’t need faith when everything is going our way. What God truly wants for each one of us is for us to know who he is. The hard things in life remind us that there is very little that we can control. When things are spinning out of our control, God offers to take care of us. We are deaf to that offer when we are getting along just fine on our own.
God uses times like the one we are in to draw us closer to him. As we persevere through the struggles we are faced with, our faith is developed. We ask for faith to get through it and God provides us with faith to do just that. Our faith in him defines who we are and just how we will live our lives. We should rejoice in the trial because it offers us the chance to persevere in our walk with God. That perseverance developed by the testing of our faith will result in our growth as followers of Jesus and we will find that we will not lack anything at the end of the day.
This life is about more than what we eat and drink or how many putts we make. It is about our relationship to our Creator. We come to know him best when we need him most. Count it pure joy that he cares enough about us that he allows us to see our need for him. When we see our need, we can also see his abundant power to give us all that we truly need. We should look at the trial as the opportunity to trust God more and let him use it to mature our faith in him, so we can live a life where we truly do not lack anything we actually need.
—
Linda Ballard
May 7, 2020
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