Month: September 2023

We don’t have to live in spiritual poverty; God offers us His riches—every day.

Philippians 4:19-20

Imagine that you’ve saved for a long time to take a cruise. At last, you’re aboard with two carefully packed suitcases. The first evening, when “Dinner is served” is announced over the loudspeaker, you grab peanut butter crackers from your suitcase and sit at the table in your small cabin. Every day at mealtime, you repeat the ritual. It isn’t that you don’t like the ship’s tasty banquets. You simply don’t know that meals are included in the ticket price. For two weeks you enjoy beautiful scenery off the decks but eat dry, stale food in your room.

This sad story is a metaphor for how some believers live the Christian life. God has promised to meet every need of His children—His riches are included in the price Christ paid for their salvation (Ephesians 1:18). Yet many of us are trying to live out of our own resources. We don’t know that the bounty of God’s love, power, and provision is on the menu.

A believer’s relationship with Jesus is one of complete unity. He is our life, and His Spirit lives through us. Therefore, everything that is available to the Lord is also available to us—all power, strength, and endurance.

Spend time in the Word to learn about all the riches you are given through faith. God offers believers everything required for living well and wisely. Trust Him for all your needs.

Instead of feeling hopeless and discouraged by trials, we can choose to walk with God in peace and joy.

James 1:5-8

At first glance, today’s passage on wisdom doesn’t seem related to trials, but James is actually continuing His thoughts from the previous three verses. We need wisdom to know how to respond to suffering. This means we should see trials from God’s viewpoint and understand His purposes in allowing them in our life. If you want to profit from struggles, be sustained in them, and come through with joy, you must believe:

The Lord is in control. Your trial won’t go beyond the boundaries He has set.

He has a specific purpose for your suffering.

This hardship will prove to be profitable if you submit to God and trust Him through it.

Trying situations are opportunities for faith to prove genuine and grow stronger.

When you endure suffering with unexplainable peace and joy, God will demonstrate His sustaining power to others.

The Father uses trials to produce Christlike character.

God will walk with you through all difficulties.

If you believe these principles, they will shape how you respond to painful challenges. This perspective eliminates the negative reactions normally elicited by trials and makes supernatural responses possible. Instead of feeling miserable and hopeless, you’ll experience amazing peace and joy.

Suffering becomes easier to bear when we consider the good gifts God provides through it.

James 1:2-4; James 1:12

Today’s passage says, “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials” (James 1:2). What a preposterous statement! Do you know anyone who thinks joy and trials fit together? But James is presenting God’s perspective—not a human one. Suffering has some surprising benefits that aren’t readily apparent to most people.

It’s important to realize these verses are not telling us to be happy in our pain but rather to rejoice in the blessings that accompany suffering. The word consider means “to regard.” When we look at hardships from God’s perspective, we can rejoice in the beneficial outcome, even while experiencing pain.

For many, understanding the purpose of trials makes rejoicing easier. The Lord wants adversity to test our faith and produce endurance and spiritual maturity. In every hardship, He has hidden a beautiful and precious reward, but whether we receive it depends upon our response. Those who really want to be transformed into the image of Christ can rejoice in the good that will result from hard circumstances.

Does your hunger to know the Lord and be transformed by Him exceed your dread of distress? None of us want to experience pain, but since it’s an unavoidable reality in this fallen world, why not respond in a way that produces eternal benefit? Let’s not waste our suffering.

Giving others permission to speak into our life helps us avoid common pitfalls.

Hebrews 10:23-25

Yesterday, we learned that we’re all answerable to someone. Today, let’s look at the benefits of accountability:

Clear direction. Honesty about your faults allows you the opportunity to hear right counsel and encouragement. This will help you do and become all that God has in mind for you.

Increased integrity. If you have to give an account to somebody, you’re more likely to be honest and transparent.

Better stewardship. Accounting for the way you use money, time, or talent makes you careful not to waste those resources.

Protection against excess. As children of God, we are free in Christ, but an accountability partner helps us stay balanced and guards us from taking liberties.

Healthy self-examination. Another person can often point out what we cannot see in ourselves.

Safeguard against unwise relationships. If you give an account of the places you go and the people you spend time with, you’ll be more likely to make wise choices.

Unbridled freedom may seem like a great blessing, but it can be a recipe for disaster. Do you give an account to anybody for the way you handle money, time, and relationships? If not, consider inviting a trustworthy Christian to fill that role. Taking this step reveals a heart that longs to please God.