Just visited Evangel Ministries in Detroit on this Lord’s Day. Folks were talking about going through trials. Funny how James 1 talks about when (not if) you go through trials.
Why do we have to go through trials at all? Why can’t everything just be good?
Pastor Flynn Smith provided a great word picture:
We, who follow Christ, want to be more like him. Ultimately we hope to act like him, and even have others see Christ in us. Like a t-shirt with our favorite image, it took heat for the image to stick to the t-shirt. And sometimes it takes some heat in our lives for us to be more like the Lord that we desire to emulate.
Perhaps you don’t connect with the t-shirt image. Maybe you prefer the fancy jeans with rhinestones. To take a normal pair of jeans and make them special by decorating them, you have to apply significant pressure to each and every gemstone.
Is that end worth the heat, the pressure, the trials to draw closer to the desired end?
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
For stories of others that struggled through pressure, check out: https://percipientwitnesses.com/witness-list/
Percipient Witnesses 