“Lord, help me to embrace the trials, difficulties, and adversity in my life!” I know what you might be thinking – “What did he just say? Shouldn’t we pray to be delivered from adversity? Has he gone off his rocker?” Well maybe, but before you pass judgment on me, let me explain.
Listen to what the bible says in James 1:2-4 – “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
The above verse tells us a few things - we will experience difficulties (the verse says “when,” not “if” we encounter various trials), we should receive them with joy, and if we do, they will make us more perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
If you’re like me, difficult times, as painful as they may be, cause me to press harder after God. When I’m going through a challenging time, I spend more time in His presence, listen more carefully for His voice, and rely more on His provision.
On the contrary, when my life is absent of difficulties, I tend to let up on my pursuit of God. He fades into the background, only to get my attention on Sunday morning.
I don’t know about you, but when I look back at my life, some of the most challenging times of my life coincide with the seasons of greatest growth and revelation in my relationship with God.
If that is true in your life too, then let me suggest that ease is our enemy, and difficulty and adversity are our friends.
I encourage you to look at the adversities in your life differently. God might just be using them as an instrument to perfect your faith and cause you to pursue Him with greater intensity. Instead of allowing them to discourage you, count them as joy!
When you do, you will be in good company with the psalmist who wrote “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.” (Psalm 119:71)
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