Excuse me, DO WHAT?!

Scooped from: Year 27

When I really started to grow in my relationship with the Lord, I can remember reading these verses from James 1 and thinking, "WHAT?!?! Count it all joy?!?! We still talking 'bout trials?"  Ha-ha!  But this Scripture holds sooo much truth (OBVIOUSLY!).  While some people allow tests and trials to break them down, tests and trials produce steadfastness IF you trust in God.  Shouts out to Year 27 for the image.  Hop on over to the blog for more!
So I looked at some Scrips that relate to the above...for verse 2, let's look at 1 Peter 1:6-9 ESV:

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Some things that stood out to me in those verses were: 

• the tested genuinenss of my faith is more precious than gold...the TESTED GENUINENESS! Whew!
• inexpressible joy...WOW.  Joy that I cannot even EXPRESS!  That's pretty amazing.
• the fact that even though I've never seen Christ...I love Him.  Wow.  How can you love Someone you've never seen?  Well, people do it all the time...sites like eHarmony ring a bell? Lol.  And our relationship with Christ is sooo much better and VERY fulfilling!

In verse 3, "steadfastness" could also mean "patience," or "endurance," or "perseverance."  For that verse, let's cruise on over to Romans 5:3-4 ESV.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,


Ok...so you said what now Paul? Um...suffering can produce something OTHER than pain and heartache?!  Suffering for Christ?! Produces endurance...which in turn produces character...which in turn produces hope...a hope that doesn't disappoint I might add (verse 5).  Hmm...ok.  This is evidenced by the early church and countless other believers. So this is evidently tried and true.

Good stuff!  Now, let's just put that into practice!...doers and not hearers only - James.