James 1:2-4 To Endure, To Wait, To Receive - BLOGGING THE BIBLE- JournalHome.com

11/17/2010 - James 1:2-4 To Endure, To Wait, To Receive

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SCRIPTURE: James 1:2-4 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

OBSERVATION: We tend to thnk about endurance as, at best, something you never want to get good at--certainly not a character quality that would, somehow improve our lives. James takes a different view. He sees endurance as an enhancement for our lives, something that has the potential to make us "perfect and complete".
Why does he have this view? Because he is very aware that God has promised to provide and take care of us. The problem is our willingness to hold on in faith and prayer believing for this divine intervention that is promised. What does it take to have that essential willingness to wait for the inevitable blessing? Simply endurance. Good will ALWAYS come, the question is, will we still be faithfully and obediently waiting for it?

APPLICATION: God has taught me so much about endurance over the last few years. I have been learning to ask what He is up to and to cooperate with it. I have been learning that endurance is not just sitting and waiting but engaging in expectational action. I have been learning that when you learn endurance, the trials of this world have much less effect on you.

PRAYER: Oh God, that I might endure!! Teach me to continually wait for You to come and fulfill my hearts desires--at least those that You have given me. Help me to never get discouraged and never to give up. You never, ever give up on me.

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