Dear Friend,

As I sit and reflect over the events of the past few days and months I was drawn to the first chapter of James. In the first 13 verses we are given some understanding of the purpose of trials that come our way: (a) The good that comes from trials. (b) The comfort we can have in trials. I believe these passages speak to us to help us in our time of trial when we need understanding and comfort. So for a few minutes, think with me as we look into God's Word. (Read verses 2-4) The Lord would first of all have us know that there is purpose in trials.

1. When difficult times come into our lives and we find ourselves unable to comprehend/to understand; the enemy is quick to throw doubts/questions into our minds.

2. We find ourselves questioning God's goodness/God's wisdom in allowing these things to happen.

3. We may even be bitter and angry with God for allowing this to happen to us and wonder if He really understands.

4. But God's word confidently reminds us that God does understand: Things do not haphazardly happen to Christians and with no meaning or purpose.

5. God is in control and as Paul reminds us in Romans 8 that no one or nothing can separate us from God's love; even the most difficult of circumstances.

6. James reminds us that God wants us to trust Him in the trials of life. For as we trust Him in the trials God can use the difficult trial to mold us and mature us so we will be more like Jesus Christ.

7. Isaiah 55:8-9 the prophet said in trying to comprehend God's ways: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

8. Trust Him! Keep your eyes on Him! And God will use even this trial for His glory.

9. James goes on to tell us that not only does Gold have purpose in trials--but also that God gives wisdom in trials. James recognizes that we may not always be able to see the purpose in trials or see the good that can come from trials. Keep on asking Him for wisdom in faith and our God who loves to give will respond so that we can see the good and the purpose in trials. Listen, to have peace in any crisis you must focus on God instead of your situation. I know, that's easier said than done, but that's what Paul means when he says in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice." He's not saying that we're happy about what we're going through; he's not even saying to rejoice in our difficulties. He's saying rejoice in the Lord, and that's something altogether different. Biblical joy is the knowledge that God is in control of your circumstances and allows only that which is good for you into your life. That's why James says to consider it joy when a trial comes your way. It's not that the trial brings joy; it's what God is doing for us through the trial; His good work is coming into our lives. Because we know that, we consider the trial joy; we rest in the Lord. In essence, we worship Him. Let me share a quick story: The morning my mama died was sad; it was New Year’s Day 1979. Not only had we grown very close, but it pained me because it was totally unexpected. At the same time, (even though I didn’t fully surrender my life to Christ until 2 months later), I knew that God was involved in every detail and was doing a good thing in our lives through our hurt. As we focused on that, we were able to worship, find joy, and tell others about the goodness of God and the good times we had with my mama. A couple of her friends from the church arrived within an hour of her passing. As they came into the room, we were laughing about some story as we'd been reminiscing, and one of them made the comment, "Somehow I knew there would be joy in this house today." Again, it's not that we were happy about my mama’s death. But we forced ourselves to focus on God and in so doing we found joy. But that’s only the beginning; we can’t stop there because Satan and the flesh has a way of coming back to bite us. From our focus on God, we have to literally engage in serving others. Paul says in Philippians 4:5, "Let your gentleness be known to all men; the Lord is at hand.” As you rejoice in God, that should move you to then focus on others. Let your gentleness, kindness, patience, and heart be known to others. How can you do that? Paul says the Lord is at hand; God is near and will help you. And it's not just that God wants you to serve others in the midst of your trouble. It's that He knows our weakness. Our tendency will be to focus on ourselves and spiral down into despair. But if we focus on others, we'll be distracted and not have time to spiral down. More than that, we'll derive a certain joy in serving others before the Lord. Now that’s well and good. But what happens when we’re all alone or when it’s time to go to bed? We have to give our troubles to God through prayer. I remember tossing and turning one night I couldn't get any peace. I did remember God's Word though: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Well, that's what I was doing; I was praying over and over again but I still couldn't get any peace or sleep! And then I realized; I was praying like the pagans do in Matthew 6:7-8. I was worried if I didn't say just the right thing, mention every possible problem, or pray with just the right attitude, that God wouldn't hear my prayers. When I realized what I was doing, I simply gave it to the Lord. That's why He says to pray; He means for us to tell Him what's burdening our hearts and give it to Him so we can rest. He gives us permission (and commands us even) to stop thinking about our problems and let Him deal with them. When we do that, He gives us the peace. When I did that, I went right to sleep. You might say certain thoughts plague you because you're in a long-term dilemma that seems never ending. Yes, but you don't have to dwell on the difficulties. Reorient the focus of your thoughts. Take it one step further. The more you meditate on the things of God, as Paul says, the more you'll know God and His ways. You'll know that He is indeed working these things for good in your life. You know that "the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly."

Let’s pray: “Heavenly Father, Renew me spiritually and emotionally. Give me new strength, hope, and confidence. Prepare me to meet the constant struggles of daily life with a deeper faith and trust in You. In Jesus Name, Amen!”


One Simple Nugget: “Hardship often prepares ordinary people for extra-ordinary destiny!”

Please remember: Don’t shrink your dreams super-size your courage and abilities!

Dear Friend,

I want to talk just a little bit about integrity. Integrity is defined as the character quality of being above reproach, true to your word, and not compromising your principles even when you’re under fire. Those of us who are Christians should be people marked by integrity, especially when we’re under fire. If we waffle when the pressure is on, it hurts our witness and people shrug off the great message we stand for. If we fudge on integrity, the enemy uses it to dilute the power of the gospel we proclaim. For the sake of Christ who gave His life for His church, we who share the Word of God must strive to be people of integrity. Timothy was feeling the pressure to compromise. Timid and peace-loving by nature, he had to stand strongly against the false teachers in Ephesus. It would have been easy to water down essential truth in the name of peace and unity. So after exhorting him to fight the good fight of the faith and reminding him of the good confession he had made at his baptism, Paul (in 1 Timothy 6:13-16) gives a solemn charge to Timothy to maintain his integrity in his ministry above all else, even if it means persecution or death. He states the aim: to maintain his integrity under fire; and he gives three great facts which, if Timothy will stay aware of, will motivate him to such integrity: God’s presence; Christ’s coming; and, God’s sovereign supremacy. In other words, to maintain integrity under fire, live with an awareness of God’s presence, Christ coming and God’s sovereign supremacy. “I charge you ... keep the commandment without stain or reproach.” The question is what Paul means by “the commandment?” In light of the circumstance and the thrust of the whole book, the best view is that Paul means that Timothy maintains his personal integrity and that he discharges his ministry above reproach. He is charging Timothy before God that he live in such a manner that neither his personal life nor his ministry would bring any blot on the name of Christ. Such integrity rests on a foundation beneath the surface, where no one but you and God can see. That foundation is laid a brick at a time, as you live each day with your thoughts and private deeds laid bare before the God who sees all. Do you spend time each day alone with God, opening your heart to Him, allowing His Word to search the thoughts and intents of your heart? Do you judge sinful thoughts, confessing them to God and forsaking them as you seek, rather, to set your mind on the things above? No one sees your heart, except you and God. Integrity is built on judging and forsaking such thoughts and deeds. Whatever the secret sin, you’re building a life of integrity if you remember that God knows your heart, and you live in obedience to Him even though no other human being is watching. Jesus in the book of Matthew and Mark said that murder begins in the heart where anger, bitterness, and hatred go un-judged. So that’s where a life of integrity must be built a brick at a time. Such integrity is built in secret, but it manifests itself under fire. The pressure brings out what has been built in. The close association of God and Christ Jesus, plus the assumed omnipresence of Christ, point to Jesus’ deity. Paul reminds Timothy that both God the Father and Christ are listening in and watching as he gives this charge to Timothy. Keeping in mind the fact that God and Christ are always with us will motivate us to live each moment to please Him, whether or not anyone else is there. David said in Psalm 63, “I shall seek you earnestly; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh yearns for You....” Didn’t David have the Lord? Yes, because he calls Him “my God.” But he wanted more. He wanted to go deeper. He was satisfied, but he wasn’t satisfied. He knew that there was more and his whole being craved it as a thirsty man in the desert craves for water. To seek after God means that there is always more, because God is an infinite person. If you figure that you’ve reached a level of maturity in your Christian life where you can put it in neutral and coast, you’re in trouble! David had walked with God for years, but he thirsted for more. Putting God in the center of your life gives you balance and perspective in the crises of life. The person who seeks after God will be a person of strength and stability, a person with inner resources to meet every crisis in life. Your relationship with the Lord is comparable to a marriage relationship. Marriage is a relationship where intense feelings of passion and a lifelong commitment are intertwined. When a couple falls in love, there are strong feelings, and there is nothing wrong with that. But a marriage cannot be built on feelings alone, but on commitment. The commitment carries you through the hard times when the feelings may fade.Seeking after God means keeping your passion for God alive. Christianity is not just a matter of the head, but of the heart. As you think on what God has done for you in Christ, it ought to move you emotionally. As you reflect on His great love and faithfulness toward you over the years, in spite of your failures, you ought to feel love for Him. God isn’t just a spoke in the wheel; He’s the hub. God isn’t just a slice of life, who rounds out your other pursuits. Rather, God permeates every area of your life. He’s at the center of every decision you make. He’s the Lord of every relationship you have. You manage your money by considering what His Word says about it. There is no area of your life, be it your business, your family, your education, or whatever, where God is not an integral part. There is no division between sacred and secular; all of life is related to God.

Let’s pray: “Heavenly Father, Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You; for it teaches me to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before You.  Even when it brings about hurtful circumstances help me to do the right thing in keeping with the Christ-filled nature I received upon the day of my salvation.  May I not be found lacking in integrity but rather be characterized by my integrity as it honors my Father in heaven.  In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

 

One Simple Nugget:”Wisdom is knowing the right path to take……….integrity is taking it!”

Dear Friend,

I was praying this morning and the Lord spoke these words in my heart: “Those that believe in Me are expected to get to know Me better as they walk the pilgrims pathway.” He said, “There are things they can learn only through suffering; and one of those things is that I am the God of all comfort!” I had known throughout my ministry, of course, that God comforts His own. I had taught about the ministry of the Holy Spirit who was sent by Christ to help us. And I had seen that the reading of the Bible brings consolation to sorrowing hearts and peace to those in great turmoil. But now my family and I are experiencing God’s comfort for ourselves. In the last seven months we have known daily the comfort of the Savior, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the precious Word of God. Listen to me carefully; the faith of the Christian should grow stronger in times of trial and trouble. Trials have a way of digging up the soil of our hearts and turning up weeds. That is good for us, for it is not in the sunshine but in the storm that we discover the depth of our need. Someone has said, “Great soldiers are not made in the barracks nor on the parade ground, but on the battlefield where the going is tough.” Trials provide opportunities for us to get to know God better. In his epistle to the Colossians, Paul assured the Christians that he was praying for them on a regular basis. Included in the list of things for which he prayed in 1:10 was the request that they might be increasing in the knowledge of God. Paul knew that one of the secrets to a full and blessed life is getting to know God better. The primary source of the knowledge of God is His Word. The book of Proverbs 2:1 says, “My sons, if thou wilt receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. . . . Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.”As every student of the Bible knows, God does reveal Himself in His Word. We may discover God in other areas of life as well. Psalm 46 begins with the following words: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” As we approach the end of the psalm, God is speaking and He says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (verse 10). Times of trouble are very often times of silence. At least we are sure that days filled with suffering and sorrows give us the opportunity to be silent. These can be precious moments of quiet reflection when God speaks to us. If we do not set aside some time each day to be silent before God, then He has His own way of setting us aside. If we take advantage of these periods of quiet solitude, we too can increase in the knowledge of God. Yes, dear friends, our time of trouble can be for each of us a time of getting to know God better. In the lengthy but lovely 119th Psalm ha ha, David gave his personal testimony of something he learned about God when he was afflicted. In this one psalm, the word afflicted occurs four times (verses 67, 71, 75, 107), and the word affliction three times (verses. 50, 92, 153). In each of those seven verses, the psalmist spoke of himself and the affliction he suffered, but not once did he complain or find fault with God. This is neither the time nor the occasion to expound on all of these points, so let me briefly draw your attention to just two of them. In verse 71, the psalmist said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” He considered God's school of affliction to be a learning place. There he learned, among other lessons, that God has a purpose in sending affliction to His children. In his first use of the noun affliction, the psalmist said in verse 50, “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word quickened me. As he sat silently before God in his affliction, he learned by personal experience that God is the God of all comfort. Comfort in affliction and adversity. That is the theme of this morning’s letter. To date, my family and I have spent ONE HUNDRED NINETY FIVE consecutive days in this trial. I knew full well that we were facing one of the severest trials in our lifetime. For 23 years I have been preaching and teaching the Word of God to others. Never once did I doubt the truths I was called of God to declare, but I must confess that I had never experienced much of what I preached and taught. But now God is giving me an opportunity to prove His Word to be gloriously and wondrously true! One of the key passages in 2 Corinthians is greatly needed today. As a matter of fact, there never has been a time when it was not needed. It is at once both timely and timeless. Let us look together at this brief portion of two verses: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God.”Isn’t that a powerful statement? I believe when Paul spoke of the “God of all comfort” he was speaking of a knowledge of God that he himself had experienced. Undoubtedly he included himself in the plural word us in verse 4. I take this as his personal testimony that in all of his troubles and tribulations, he was comforted by God. That comfort did not merely enable him to endure his trials but also to receive special blessings from them. Paul's knowledge of God as the God of all comfort is therefore not a mere intellectual and academic one; it is a blessed and rewarding experience. He knows what he is talking about. In no way can my small trial be compared with the severity of Paul's many encounters with suffering.Linked with the description of God as the God of all comfort; is the statement that He is the Father of mercies. Mercy is the outward manifestation of compassion for others in their affliction. Mercy had its origin with God, who is called its Father. All acts of pity and compassion proceed from Him. God has a tender feeling of compassion for us when we are in distress. Our trials, however slight or severe, have His attention. David expressed it as follows In Psalm 103:13-14: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Always keep in mind, when we are being tested by adversity and affliction, compassion flows to us from His great loving heart. We never need to fear that His supply of mercy will run out, because He is rich in mercy!!!Friend, your heavenly Father does care, and He does comfort. Turn to Him and give Him the privilege of ministering to your need. You are His child, and He is there when you hurt.

Let’s pray: “Heavenly Father, you are Holy above all others and all of the strength that I need is in your hands. I am not asking, Lord, that you take this trial away. Instead, I simply ask that Your will be done in my life. Whatever that means, that is what I want. Sometimes I feel like I can’t go on. The pain and the fear are too much for me, and I know that I don’t have the strength on my own to get through this. Please, Lord, give me the strength that I need to face today. Help me to keep my eyes on You. You are the Holy Lord and All my hope rest in You. In Jesus Name, Amen!”

 

One Simple Nugget: “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Romans 8:31