Quiet Time Thoughts On Trials

I took my mother to the doctor today...and last week..and she goes again next week.... Her medication had been changed and now increased. She was feeling tired and weary, but she came away from the doctor today cheerful and encouraged. Why? Because he said that although the new medication is making her feel bad for awhile, that when it has its full effect she will feel much better--so please endure it and press on.

We have friends in our small group on Wednesdays who have also had serious health complications, who also must endure and press on, and are themselves rejoicing in how they're coming along. Trials in life are inevitable. How we respond is up to us and our faith.

As I thought back to Mom's visit with her doctor today, my mind went to James 1:2-5--

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, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We're better able to tolerate trials when we know there's going to be a positive outcome. Mom is looking forward to feeling better and having the medication do its job, so she's willing to endure. When we don't know what the outcome of our trial might be, though, we tend to be beaten down beneath it. If you're like me, we tend to focus on the trial and not its outcome. Or, that the outcome will be the worst possible.

James tells us that the trials we go through test our faith. Is our faith real? If it is, then the trial will produce endurance, that inner quality of strength. Over the years, I've seen my mother go through various trials--caring for my handicapped sister, having blood clots throughout her life, colon cancer, a house fire that destroyed most of what they had, and I'm sure many other trials that I know little or nothing about.

Endurance also carries with it a sense of expectancy, of knowing there will be relief or reward. The perfect result of endurance is that we realize that we really lack nothing. Which is how we can consider it joy when we encounter our trials, knowing that God is at work.

We can struggle against trials, and thus despair, or we can let God do His work, knowing that all things work together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose...to be conformed to the image of His Son....(Romans 8:28-29).

Trials are an essential part of building our faith. The strengthening of our faith produces in us Christlikeness. As I heard someone say who was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer--"If this is to strengthen my faith, bring it on!"

I'm not there yet, and may never be, but I do want to view my trials as faith-builders. I know it's an ongoing process. It's only through God's grace and mercy, though, that I can.

Painting ~ Evening At Home, Edward John Poynter 1888