James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy... whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."

If I want to learn to live by faith I must learn to rejoice continually. James says "Consider it all joy when you go through problems." Notice he doesn’t say be thankful for the problems. God doesn’t expect you to thank Him for bad things in your life. Like if you get cancer you don’t say "Thank You God, for this cancer." Of course not. It says, be thankful in the problem. I must learn to rejoice in the situation continually if I’m going to learn to live by faith.

If you were to evaluate how you do when problems test your faith, where would you be on a scale from one to ten? How quickly do I praise God when things go wrong? If you say "never," you rate yourself down at the bottom, a "1." If you say "Sometimes I thank God, I praise God in the problem," you get a "5." If you say, "I always do it. It’s my habit to continually rejoice when I’m dealing with a difficulty because I know God will help me." You get a "10."

The Bible says "Rejoice in the Lord always [That means all the time] And again I say rejoice," because God uses difficulties. And He tests our faith and He builds it not in the easy times of life but in the difficult times.

Lord Jesus, this is Dennis, I feel like that guy in the Bible who said, “I believe, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:34)

 

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