Let It Grow! Let It Grow!

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
James 1:2-4 NLT

You know it's easy to serve the Lord when everything is going well. It's easy to be kind. It's easy to be loving. It's easy to be patient - in the good times. It's really easy to have great joy when everything's good. Would you agree?  

We've talked about it before - there are times I still struggle with considering troubles as opportunities for great joy. I can lose sight of the joy when the mountains of obstacles overwhelm me on every side. That is the test of our faith - the opportunity for our endurance to grow. (Some translations read patience for endurance.) So, how important is that, anyway, to let our endurance grow?

In Matthew 24:13, Jesus tells us just how important, But the one who endures to the end will be saved. I don't want to have made it this far only to give up when we're so close to the end, do you? As the writer of Hebrews exhorts us in 12:1, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

So let's join with James, and Jesus, and the great cloud of witnesses, and do as Peter says, So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. (1st Peter 1:6 NLT)

Prayer:

Father,
          Thank You for the opportunities for great joy! Thank You for the faith-building endurance training. Thank You for strengthening us to to be able to endure to the end, just as You have said, so that we will be saved. Let us be found faithful to the end. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen