Devotion:
Read James 1:2-5.
Well, James, I hear you, but I find it a lot easier to consider it pure joy when my favorite team wins the big game, when our family gathers to celebrate a holiday, or I look out and see two thousand people gathered on our church lawn for FunDay Sunday! All of these are reasons to be happy, but each of them is based on a set of circumstances, and the fragile emotion of happiness can change rapidly and even disappear with the circumstances. James is writing of a much deeper joy, a joy that we find in Christ. It appears that he was writing to Christians who had dispersed or scattered away from Jerusalem as a result of persecution at the hands of zealous Jewish persons who saw Christianity as a threat. The tests and trials these early Christians faced were tough matters of life and death.
I am reminded of Jesus’ parable of the person who built his house on sand (no deep foundation of faith), and the storms of life swept it away. The house built on the rock of belief in Christ endured the storm. New, immature faith is vulnerable and subject to wavering, but when we persevere by keeping our faith and weathering the storms of testing and trials, our faith grows deeper and stronger. Knowing that gives us joy that lasts and that transcends circumstance!
Personal Worship Option:
Give thanks today for the love of Christ that is with us in all circumstances -- good and bad. Reflect on the difficult times when your faith has grown and deepened. Time must pass sometimes before we can look back on those tough periods of testing and trials to see how God was with us. Give thanks for the joy that comes from knowing we never face our trials alone...never!
No comments:
Post a Comment