have you ever stopped to think about the fact that faith is like a muscle. it is stretched, pulled. and just like muscles develop when you test them against weights, your faith only develops as it is tested. you don't develop faith sitting on your blessed assurance in church. you develop faith by having it tested.
james 1:3 (niv) says, the testing of your faith develops perseverance so that you may be mature and complete. GOD tests your faith.
now here is the perspective as CHRISTians that CHRIST wants us to have today in going through what we are going through in our world. james 1:2-4 (ms), consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. you know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. so don't try to get out of anything prematurely. let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
bill hybels who is the pastor of willow creek community church in chicago and who has been one of the leaders in reaching out to those outside of the church shared that in the beginning days of his ministry he and his wife had great financial pressure to just make it. they even took in boarders to make it. and he said those days were important days in building his faith which in turned built his faith so that he could make in through the tuff times in building this great church.
but we want to bypass the tuff stuff. we want to go right to the maturity. right to the success.
maybe what you are going through right now is really tuff and you don’t like it and you want GOD to do a miracle and take it away. but have you ever thought that maybe the miracle is in GOD giving you the strength to go through the tuff stuff?
listen, it is not in the good times that our faith is shown to be true but in the bad times. it is not through the good times that our faith is strengthened but in the bad times. these days that we are going through are not bad times for the CHRISTian but great times to show that what we believe in really is true. not only to show others who are looking at you but also to yourself.
listen it is under pressure that your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.
there is a testing, a putting your money where your mouth is time in your life. there are situations in your life when what you believe is tested. so how are you handling these tuff days? GOD always puts these tuff days into your life for a reason.
and then it goes on and says, so don't try to get out of anything prematurely. let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
understand this, HE knows you and HE is not testing you so HE will know, HE already knows. HE is testing you so you will know and so your faith will grow.
i was with one of my good friends and we were talking about the difficult year that they had just gone through and i said now you know that you can survive anything. and that is awesome to know. that is freedom.
i have retired and that has hit us financially. now we wouldn’t have done that if we hadn’t gone through some major tuff times and survived. and from that our obedience coupled with our faith has made our risking an opportunity to show others that this is the only way to live life. surviving the tuff stuff has given us faith to do the tuff stuff and live through the tuff stuff again without fear but with faith. and that is really exciting, living on the edge, expectant rewarding living. it is the only way to live. so don't try to get out of anything prematurely. let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
let's make a real difference by showing that CHRIST makes a difference in the tuff stuff in life.
well just some thoughts from bill’s front porch…
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