- So, as you know,
it is human nature to avoid the things that
we don't like, right? I mean, this starts
from childhood, right? It's human nature to avoid
things that we don't like. Vegetables, exercise, people
who only eat vegetables, people who exercise
all the time, people who dress like
they eat vegetables and exercise all the
time, whatever it is. And sometimes avoiding things
we don't like won't hurt us. And then sometimes avoiding
things we don't like, can hurt us. In the category
of avoiding things that we don't like
that won't hurt us. I was talking to
Sandra last night and one of the things that
we avoid that won't hurt us is scary movies. And I don't know why but
neither of us like scary movies. In fact, we decided last night the last kind of scary
movie that we saw, and some of you won't even
think this was a scary movie just to tell you where we are, was the Sixth Sense. Remember that movie
back in 19, yes, 99. And I remember we
watched that movie and we were so
freaked out by it, we muted so much of the movie and fast forwarded through
so much of the movie when we got to the
end, we had no idea what had actually
happened, seriously. Then we waited a couple of
days and tried it again. And our second time
through, we muted less of it and fast forwarded
through less of it, and we kinda had an idea. And on the third round, we finally knew what
the movie was about, so we could talk
about it intelligently with our friends, right? Now, again, there's
lots of things that if you don't like
them, you can avoid them, and it won't hurt you. But there are some things
that you don't like that if you avoid them, they
have the potential to hurt you. Now, this is gonna come as
a surprise to some of you. And please don't
judge me harshly. But there are actually
statements in the Bible that I don't particularly like. And today, I need
to talk about one, I would say I wanna
talk about one, but actually, I just
need to talk about one and the reason I need
to talk about one is this particular statement answers a very
important question, and it's a question that's
relevant to all of us. The problem is, I
don't like the answer. And if you don't like the
answer to this question either just remember this over
the next few minutes. This is not my answer,
this is not me speaking, this is somebody else,
I am just the messenger, don't shoot the piano player, I'm just delivering the message. Now, the question that the
author is gonna answer for us is actually a question
we're all asking. Again, it's just the
answer that's disturbing. But the question is this, what do we do when
there's nothing we can do? What do we do when
there's nothing we can do? When it is what it is, and
we don't particularly like what it is, which
is like now, right? Because for some of you, you're not gonna be able
to graduate publicly. For some of you, you've
lost your income, you've lost your job, you've
been furloughed from your job. For some of you,
you've lost opportunity that's not coming back, you were planning to retire and you're gonna
have to put that off. In fact, you're not
sure you'll ever retire. You don't like what's
going on right now because you're alone. And then you go on
Facebook or Instagram and it looks like everybody
else in the world has somebody but you don't have somebody. Or maybe, (laughs) maybe you
wish you were more alone. But isn't it true that in the
past few weeks for all of us, in the past few weeks, we've already been confronted
with our more sinister selves, that stuff in us that we
weren't sure was there, that stuff in us that we're
kind of embarrassed about, but we've been
confronted with it. And we can't wait for
things to get back to normal or, well, we can't wait
for things to get back to more normal. I mean, you love
your kids, right? But homeschooling really? And Sandra and I can,
we can sympathize, we homeschooled for 10 years. And I'll tell you who else
can sympathize with you, Ben. Ben is being homeschooled
for the very first time. And during a break in
the homeschooling process Ben wrote a little note, and I'd like to share
Ben's note with you. Here's what Ben writes. Ben, he's being homed school
3-16-2020, here's what he says: It is not going good. My mom's getting stressed out. My mom is really
getting confused. (laughs) Then he says this: We took a break so my mom
can figure this stuff out. And I'm telling you,
it is not going good. You can relate to that, maybe not specifically
to homeschooling, but it's just not going good. Maybe it went good
for the first few days or for the first
couple of weeks, but you're kinda tired of this. And then, along comes
James, the brother of Jesus with advice, or
instruction, that honestly, it just strikes
me as too passive. And it strikes me
as insensitive. And the reason it
strikes me as insensitive is James doesn't know
what's going on in my life, and James doesn't know
what's going on in your life. That James is gonna
give us advice without hearing our stories,
and that's always a bad idea. It's a bit like when you
read in the New Testament where Jesus says: "Don't
worry about tomorrow." Don't worry about tomorrow. And you wanna raise
your hand and say, "Hey, hey hold on a minute, "let me tell you about what's
coming up tomorrow in my life "and then you tell me,
don't worry about tomorrow." It just seems so insensitive to just give these big blanket
overarching statements, don't worry about tomorrow. And what James is
about to tell us, well, it falls into
that same category. But, regardless of how much
I don't like what James says, and regardless of how
much maybe you won't like what James says,
we would be fools not to take his
instruction seriously. And here's why. (laughs) Because this is James,
the brother of Jesus. And more specifically,
this is James who was the leader in
the church in Jerusalem during the first century. This is James who believed
his brother was his Lord, because he saw his
brother crucified, and then he saw his brother
after he rose from the dead. And this is James,
the brother of Jesus, who led the church in
Jerusalem, get this, for about 30 years,
let that sink in. He led the church in
Jerusalem for about 30 years after the resurrection. He believed his
brother was his Lord throughout his entire life. And while he was in Jerusalem,
leading the local church, things were not going well. In fact, history cred for me is related to what happened
during those 30 year. During those 30 years, remember
the church in Jerusalem was primarily Jewish, these Jews that had
chosen to follow Jesus were considered blasphemers. We would say heretics, they didn't use that
terminology back then. They were considered
blasphemers, they were ostracized
from society, they were ostracized
from the temple. They're poor were not
supported by the temple. And things were very difficult
for this group of people. And this was the group of people that James was
responsible for leading. In fact, things were
so bad in Jerusalem for the Jesus followers
that the Apostle Paul would travel around
the Mediterranean rim, collecting money from
Gentile Jesus followers to take back to Jerusalem
to help the Christians in Jerusalem because
they were so impoverished because they had
decided to follow Jesus. So for 30 years, James
carries this weight and he sees the
difficulty and the trials that these Jesus followers
are facing every single day that essentially James, and this is what gives
them credibility. James was surrounded by, and
he was actually responsible for a community in crisis. And with all that going on, here's what he told
his first century, Jesus follower friends to do. And here's what he
tells you to do. And here's what
he tells me to do. James chapter one,
here's what he says: James, a servant of God, and
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is amazing, that
all these years later, James considered his
brother, his Lord. Now what he says next,
if you grew up in church it's pretty familiar. And I've taken this verse
and I've reversed the order so that us English readers can get a better sense of
what James is communicating. Here's what he says next. And here's the part, well, it's just not my
favorite part of the Bible. Here's what he says. He says, "Whenever
you face trials." Whenever you face trials,
not if ever, whenever, you can't pray them away, you can't obey them away, you can't faith them away. Trials are going to come. Whenever you face trials, because it's just
the nature of things as we talked about before,
when sin entered the world, sin held the door,
sorrow, death,
disappointment and illness walked right in. So he says, "Whenever you
face trials of many kinds..." And the little Greek
word translated face is a really
interesting word, it carries the idea of
being taken by surprise. In fact, it's used in the
context of being robbed in other Greek literature. So he says, "Whenever you
are surprised by trials." whenever you are
surprised by trials, whenever you wake up one day, and oh, no, you get that call, oh, no, you get
that information. Your son or your daughter calls, or perhaps the doctor calls. Oh, no, your face, you're
surprised by a trial. He says, "Whenever you
face trials of many kinds." Here's what we're to do. And again, remember, this isn't
me talking, this is James. He says, "Whenever you're faced "with many kinds of
trials, consider it..." That is, adjust
your perspective,
adjust your thinking, I want you to rethink it. James says, "I want you to
reframe your trial as pure joy "my brothers and sisters." Reframe or rethink your
trial in such a way that you can begin to see it
as a, this isn't me talking, as a source of joy. And how can he say
this without knowing the circumstances of our lives? He hasn't even heard
our story, and he says, no matter what
you're going through, no matter what your trial
is, I want you to step back and I want you to reframe it to the point where
you can find joy in the midst of your trial. Now, how can he say that? He tells us, he
says, "Because..." He says, "Because, you know." He says there's something you
know that you've lost sight of because you're in
the midst of a trial. Of course you've
lost sight of it. He says, because you know that when you stop to think about it, when you pause long enough
to catch your breath, when you're able to see beyond
your immediate circumstances, he says, here's what
you're going to remember, here's what you're
gonna discover. "Because you know that the
testing of your faith." The testing of your faith. And what is a test? Testing means, I'm
gonna do something to ensure that whatever
it is I'm testing is authentic and real. Testing is the process
used to determine the authenticity of something. And he says, this trial
that you're facing, the trials that we're facing, are testing the
authenticity of our faith. That trials, this is his point, that trials expose the
authenticity of our faith. And the term faith in
this particular context, actually is referring to
our confidence in God. So it can be restated this way. Trials expose the authenticity
of our confidence in God. Don't they, right? I mean, this just happens. This is a decision you make,
this is a decision I make when I'm surprised by a trial immediately, I discover
something about my faith. When you're facing
a trial of any kind, using James' terminology, immediately you discover
something about your faith. You discover in that
moment, what you believe, what you really believe, what you were
pretending to believe, what you were taught as a child but you never really
embraced as an adult. In that moment without
doing anything, your faith, the authenticity,
the genuineness of your faith is being tested,
it just happens. To put it another way, when circumstances
begin to deteriorate, when circumstances deteriorate,
artificial, counterfeit, and what's-in-it-for-me
faith deteriorates right along with it. You've seen this
happen to other people. Perhaps this is your story. And James is telling us
whether we like it or not. James says there is
joy in discovering how real our faith really is. There is joy in discovering that even though I wouldn't
sign up for what's happening in the midst of my trial, I'm discovering
something about myself, I could not discover
any other way, you're discovering
something about yourself, you could not discover
any other way. You're discovering something
about your children, or your husband, or your
wife, or your brother, or your sister that
you wouldn't discover and they wouldn't
discover any other way. In the midst of trials,
we are confronted with the authenticity or
the lack of authenticity of our faith. And James says there is joy
in making that discovery. And this perspective of faith
stands in stark contrast to some of the silly things
that are taught sometimes by people who do what I do. Some of the silly
perspectives on faith. Specifically, faith, and
this is so important. Faith is not how we
get God to do stuff. That's not the point of faith. Faith isn't a superpower,
faith is simply confidence that God already did something. Faith is simply confidence that God is who God
reveals himself to be in the New Testament and that he will do
everything he's promised. That faith is ultimately
a response to God. It's not a way to leverage God or to get God to do something he wasn't originally
intending to do. That's not faith, that's
not New Testament faith. So James says,
here's what happens, when you're facing a trial, and you cannot avoid
trials of life, when you face trials, immediately you discover
something about you, you discover something
about your faith, and ultimately, you
discover something about your heavenly Father. And James says, if you will
step back for a moment, if you'll catch your breath, if you'll regain
your perspective, there is joy in that discovery. So here's what he says. "Whenever, not if ever, you
face trials of many kinds, "consider that whole process,
that whole encounter, "as joyful or pure
joy my brothers and
sisters, because..." He says, here's what you know, you just have lost sight
of it, I'm reminding you. "Because you know that
your faith is being tested "and you know that the
testing of your faith "does two things, it
demonstrates something "and it produces something." It demonstrates something
and it produces something. It demonstrates whether
or not your faith is real. And he says, but
there's another benefit, it also produces something
and here's what it produces. He says, "Over time, the
trials that you're facing "will produce, perseverance." Perseverance, you
know what that is? It's the ability to hold up, it's the ability to hold up
under pressure or under stress. In other words, he
says "That trials," Even though we don't
sign up for them, "Trials make our
faith stronger." And trials make
our faith stronger because trials automatically
exercise our faith. Trials exercise our faith, because trials exercise our
faith muscle and you know this, the only way to make a muscle
stronger is to exercise it. But here's some good news. This is not an
exercise you choose, this is an exercise
that chooses you. I don't choose it, you don't
choose it, it chooses us. And then James says the
most interesting thing. He says, "Don't
leave the gym early." Well, that's not
exactly what he says, but that's what he means. Look what he wrote next. He says this, "And
allow perseverance
to finish its work." In other words, don't bail out
in the middle of the process. And this is a really
big, uncomfortable idea. So I wanna see if
I can explain this. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, "Look, what
God is doing right now "through this trial, is at the
center of what God is doing "in your life. "And you don't wanna
shortchange the process, "or you will miss out." Or to say it another way. The thing that we want removed, I mean, think about the
thing you want removed right now from your life. The thing that you want removed is the thing that God
has chosen to use. The thing that we're
trying to pray away or pray out of our life, which
is completely understandable is the thing, that until
God chooses to remove it, that God is using it, or
to say it a different way. The tension in our lives, is at the epicenter of
God's activity in our lives. The tension in our lives, is the epicenter of God's
activity in our lives, and I can prove it. What are you praying
about right now? Exactly. Isn't it true, this
trial, this difficult time that you're going through, this thing that you
wish would change, it has your undivided attention. And this what you're
praying about, in fact, perhaps you haven't
prayed in a long time and suddenly you find
yourself praying, why? Because that's what trials do. It exercises our faith. And it is the epicenter of
what God is up to in our lives. That's why our trials
inform our prayer. So, James says this, "Look,
don't shortchange the process, "don't bail out on the process, "don't quit the process,
and don't stop believing "because there is an outcome." And here's the
outcome, he continues, he says this, "Let
perseverance finish its work "so that you might be
mature and complete, "not lacking anything." And he's using a little
play on words here. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, "Let
perseverance complete its work "so that you will be complete." Let perseverance, let
the process play out. Let perseverance
complete its work so that you will be complete. So that you will
have grown up faith. And let's face it, the only
way to have grown up faith is to face a trial and to
experience God's faithfulness in the trial. So ask God to use this until
God chooses to remove this. Ask God to use this until
life chooses to remove this. Now, James knows how
challenging this is. And he knows that
for many of us, and for many of the folks
in his original audience, trying to imagine
how something good could come from
something so bad, how something good could
come from such a trial is almost unimaginable. And James says, "I
understand that." So if you can't imagine how
to find joy in your trial, if you can't see the
value of the fact that "Hey, I really do believe, "I've discovered
something about myself "and I've discovered
something about God, "but I still can't
imagine that it's worth "what I'm going through." James says, "I get it. "So here's what
I want you to do. "If any of you lacks wisdom," specifically, if any of you
lacks the perspective you need to see this the way
that God sees it, if any of you lacks
the perspective to see that God is doing something
in you and through you, he says, "Here's what
I want you to do. "If any of you lacks
wisdom, you should ask God," For what? For wisdom. "And He will give
it to you generously "without finding fault, "it will, in fact
be given to you." Now, here's the problem. When I'm going through a tough
time, I don't want wisdom, I want relief, right? When you're going
through a tough time, you don't want wisdom,
you want relief. But James says, "Look,
I understand that." But if you want God to choose
what you are going through, and you're having a hard time seeing that there's
anything good that could come from this, he says, "Lean in and
ask God for wisdom." This is a prayer that
God will always answer. That you say, "God,
give me your eyes "to see this the
way that you see it. "Give me your eyes to
see me, and my friends, "and my family, and my work
situation, and my finances, "the way that you see it. "Give me wisdom to
see as you see." And you know this, we've
talked about this before, oftentimes when we have the
ability to see as God sees, we are more inclined
to do, as God says. James says, "And then you will
have the perspective you need "to persevere through what
you're going through." So, I wanna put it
all back together and then I wanna tell you a
story about a friend of mine. Here's what James says. He says, "Consider it pure
joy, my brothers and sisters, "whenever you face
trials of many kinds." Why, why can we do this? He says, "Because you know this, "you know that the
testing of your faith, "the testing of your
faith demonstrates "the authenticity of your faith. "The testing of your faith
also produces perseverance." The testing of your faith demonstrates that your faith
is real, that God is faithful, and ultimately, you will
have stronger faith. And he says, "And
don't bail out early, "let perseverance
finish its work. "Don't leave the gym early,
so that you may be mature "and complete, not
lacking anything." But, if you get to the point where you just can't
do it any longer. If you get to the point
where you're thinking, "God, if you're real, you've
gotta demonstrate your love "for me, I gotta hear something,
I gotta know something, "I've got to see
something I can't see." He says, "In those
moments, don't give up, "I want you to ask
God for wisdom." He says, "If any of
you lacks wisdom, "the perspective you
need to get through this, "you should ask God who
gives generously to all "without finding fault, and
it will be given to you." Now, let me ask you this. Have you ever met
someone like this? Have you ever met someone
or known somebody, maybe you're
related to somebody, who faced trials of many kinds, trials that, they're facing
the trial and you're thinking, "How would I respond if I
were going through that?" And you watch them
walk through the trial with extraordinary faith
and confidence in God. They face things you hope
you never have to face, but their confidence
in God never waver. Do you know people like that? I've met lots of people
like that through the years. And I got to tell you, and
I think you would agree. Those are the most
inspiring, hope giving, faith giving people
I've ever met, right? I am more inspired,
I should say, I'm most inspired by people whose faith is
tested and endures. I'm more inspired by people
who get a no from God and their faith endures, than I am by people who always
seem to get a yes from God. And they live, somewhat
of a wrinkle free life. I mean, isn't it true that
you're more inspired by people who get to no and yet
remained faithful? And the reason you're
so inspired by them, and the reason I'm so
inspired by them is this. They leave us with confidence that there is a
category of faith and there is a category
of confidence in God that can endure
just about anything. The people whose
prayers go unanswered, but their confidence
in God remains firm. I had a friend like that,
his name was Regi Campbell. Regi Campbell passed away
three months ago in January. I've known Regi
for over 20 years. And I gotta tell you, I had
never seen an individual face and embrace his own mortality
with more confidence, and more courage, and more
faith than Regi Campbell. I've known him for so long. I've been with him when
he got a yes from God, I've been with him when
he got a no from God . (laughs) I was with
him when it seemed like maybe God changed his mind. I stood next to
him in 1998 or 1999 outside an ICU, his 20
something year old son had just had a
terrible car accident. And when I went in and saw Ross, honestly, I thought to myself, we're gonna have a
funeral in a few days. And I stood outside
that ICU with Regi and I listened to him
pray, and I'm telling you, knowing that in any moment,
he may lose his son, seeing his confidence in God I will never, ever
forget that moment. And I told him that
many many times. Years later, he got a no. He had a lung disease
that caused him to slowly have
decreased lung capacity. And the doctors told
him there's no cure, that eventually you're just
gonna lose your ability to breathe, and there's
really nothing we can do. And this was gonna be
a multi-year process. And throughout that time,
Regi and I would get together and I'll never forget
one breakfast we had, I got there early. He came in pulling his
oxygen tank, he sat down, and he just looked really rough. And I leaned across the table, I said, "Regi, how
are you doing?" And he gave me
this surprise look. And he said something
that was so profound to me in the moment, I actually
got my phone out. And I typed it out. Here's what he said. He said, "Andy, I'm
fine, I'm fine, look." He said, "My life has
always been in God's hands. "Nothing has changed. "My life has always
been in God's hands. "Nothing has changed. "My life was in God's hands
when things were great, "my life has been in God's hands
when things were not great. "My life has always been in
God's hands, Andy, I'm fine. "Nothing has changed." And then he got another yes, he had the opportunity to
have a lung transplant, they transplanted his lung,
the surgery went well. In fact, for those
of us who knew Regi, he actually named his lung
which was a little strange. He named his lung, Larry. And every time we got
together with Regi, Regi would tell us
how Larry was doing. And things went along
fine for a while. But as you may know, when
you have a lung transplant, or an organ transplant
of any kind, you have to take
anti-rejection drugs so your body won't
reject the organ, which wreaks havoc on
your immune system. So eventually, Regi developed
a very rare form of cancer. And the doctors
told him, they said, "If we treat the cancer, "it may cause your body
to reject your lung, "which is exactly
what happened." So in November, before the January that
he eventually passed away, I had kept up with Regi,
we're all praying for Regi, praying for a miracle and he
was wide open to a miracle but he was wide open
to his heavenly Father making the decision for him. He had total confidence in God. And so he called me one day,
he called me in November and he said, "Look, Andy," He said, "I wanna start
a new men's small group." He said, "But here's the thing." And again, here's
exactly what he said. He said, "I won't be
around to finish it up, "but I wanna get it kicked off. "So I want you to
co-lead a group with me, "and I know at some
point in the group, "I'm gonna pass away, "but I just wanna help
get it kicked off." That was his confidence in God. And that was his approach
to his own mortality. And my friends, you know
this, when you see it, you never forget it. When you see it, it
marks you for life. One more episode was Regi. Two days before he passed away,
I visited him at his home, I had been in his
home many times. And I went into his home office and he was sitting
there with his oxygen. And there was a
white marker board over in the corner of his
office I'd never seen before and across the top of the board, were these words, my commitment. And there was a
list of six things he had written out by
hand on the marker board. Now when I looked
at the six things, I thought these were
like maybe life goals that he had established
a long time ago and he was maybe reviewing
his life as he got to the end. But they weren't life goals, they were actually
finish strong goals. He had just developed
these a few weeks before to make sure this was
what he focused on as he spent his last
few weeks in this life. Now, the thing that
was amazing to me is most people don't
have a to-do list about how to live well. Regi developed a to-do list
to ensure that he died well. And I wanna share with you
what was on that board. Number one, he wrote, I will
walk with Jesus, every day. I will walk with
Jesus, every day. Wait a minute, wait, Regi, wait. The Jesus that didn't
answer your prayer? The Jesus that has allowed you
to go through so many trials, the Jesus that has
not healed you? I will walk with
Jesus, every day. Wow. Number two, I will be
grateful and live every day to the fullest. In other words he says, "As I leave this life,
I wanna make sure "I am leaning in up
until the very end. "I will be grateful and live
every day to the fullest." Number three, I
will bless my family with words, pictures and videos. He wanted to make sure
that his grandchildren would know him not just
know what he'd written but know what he looked like, he left them messages, he put together song
lists and playlist. Number four, I will
invest in my guys, the small group of men
that he had been developing and mentoring for many years. I will invest in my
guys for their good and God's glory, not mine. His point being, "Even
though I'm dying, "even though I'm receiving
all kinds of letters "and sympathy cards and
all kinds of things, he says, "this is not
going to be about me, "it's going to be about them." And then I wanna skip number
five and come back to it. Number six on the list was this, I will let people love on me. Now I asked him about
this, when I said, "What is that about?" Well, he said, "My whole life
when people wanna do things "for me, I'm like, No, I'm
fine, I'm fine, I'm fine." And I could relate to that,
maybe you can relate to that. He said, "I decided
here at the end, "if people want
to bring us food, "I'm gonna let
them bring us food. "If people wanna love on us, "I'm gonna let them love on us. "If people wanna love on my
family, that's just my pride, "I just want to allow
people to love on us." Now, that was a
pretty powerful list, but I tell you, number five,
is the one that got to me. Number five, goes
right to the heart of what James was saying
all those years ago. Here's what Regi wrote. I will not give up
and run out the clock. I will not give up
and run out the clock. This was his version
of, to use James words, I will let perseverance finish
its work to my last breath. I'm going to lean in,
rather than sit it out. Here's the thing, Regi's faith did not reverse the consequences
of life in a fallen world and he was wide open to that,
we all prayed for a miracle, you should pray for a miracle. But Regi's faith did not reverse the consequences of
life in a fallen world, and he did not expect it to because he understood
what faith is, faith is not a superpower,
faith is not how we get God to do something God
doesn't wanna do. Faith is a respond
to the faithfulness of our Heavenly Father. Regi's faith actually produced, his faith produced
perseverance and courage in the midst of a fallen world. And my friends, it's why
I'm telling his story. It's the people who
get a yes from God that we forget so easily. It's the people who
get a no from God, but whose faith is rock solid, that change our lives
and change the world. And this was James' goal for
his first century audience, and it's his goal for you
and it's his goal for me. In the first century,
in James' world, honestly, things did
not get much better. In fact, they never
got really good. But their unwavering faith and
their unwavering confidence in their savior literally
changed the world. And so we're reminded
that God will use this, that God will use this until
God chooses to remove this. And this is kind
of the bottom line, that God will use whatever
he chooses not to remove. Regi understood this. You know people who
understand that. And James words,
James instructions are an invitation for all
of us to step into this, to say, "God, use this until
you choose to remove this, "use this until you
choose to remove this "or life chooses to remove this, "but use this to remind
me that you're faithful. "Use this so that I understand "my confidence in you is real." So if we lean in, and
when we're confused if we ask for wisdom, and
if we live with open hands and an open heart, then
you will experience and I will experience the
amazing faithfulness of God through trials that we did
not choose that chose us, but that God has
chosen to use in us. Now, here's how James finishes
this section of his letter, listen to what he writes. He says, "Blessed is the one
who perseveres under trial." That's Regi, maybe
that's gonna be you, hopefully that'll be me. Blessed is the one who
perseveres under trial, not praise it away, obeys
it away, or faiths it away. "Blessed is the one who
perseveres under trial "because having stood the test "and having discovered
that their faith is real, "that person..." listen
to what he promises, "that person will
receive the crown of life "that the Lord has promised
to those who love Him." And do you know what
the crown of life is? Me either neither,
I have no idea, but it sounds good, doesn't it? The point is simply
this, that God values, God values and uses
persevering faith. That God values and God
uses persevering faith, and God has invited you,
and God has invited me to step into this realm and
to begin to see the trials that we're facing every
single day in this life. Because here's what we
know with confidence, persevering faith, leaves
its mark on the world, and it leaves its mark
on the people around us. We don't choose the trials,
the trials choose us. We don't choose the trials, we simply choose our
response to these trials. And James, this is so powerful,
James invites us to lean in, and to allow God to purify
and strengthen our faith in the midst of what
we would never choose. Now, here's the thing,
these current events that we're all experiencing, they're impacting all
of us differently, but they present all of us
with the same opportunity. They present us with
the opportunity to
allow perseverance to finish its work, so that
we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. So with that in mind,
I wanna invite you to incorporate the
following little prayer into your prayer life. In fact, you may
pray every single day and you may wanna tack this on. Again, you may not have
prayed in a long time and you're praying for the
first time in a long time. I wanna give you words to pray. Perhaps you've never prayed because you're not
sure you know how. This is a great time to start, and this prayer is a
great place to start. I wanna encourage you
to begin praying this. Heavenly Father, use this until
you choose to remove this. Heavenly Father use this until
you choose to remove this. And if you cannot imagine
how God could possibly use what you're facing right now, then I want you to do
what James tells us to do, I want you to ask
God for wisdom. Because James says that is a
prayer that God will answer every single time. So one more time. I wanna put it all together. And we'll close
with James words. Here's what he said. "Consider it pure joy, "reframe it in such a way that
you can see the joy in it, "my brothers and sisters, "whenever you face
trials of many kinds." And here's why. "Because you know," once
you catch your breath, "you know that it's simply
a test of your faith "and a test of your faith
produces perseverance." if you let it. "So let perseverance
finish its work "so that you may be
mature and complete "and not lack anything." But, if you just aren't
sure you can get there. "If any of you lacks
wisdom or perspective, "you should ask God who
gives generously to all "without finding fault, and
it will be given to you."
