Preparing for Hardships

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness."   James 1:2

            With a performance rapidly approaching for our home school’s drama group, I thought it would be helpful for me to focus on and encourage them with my article for this month. This week, I will be addressing the topic of common (and not so common) trials and hardships that we--in groups or alone--must face throughout our lives.

            I thought an excellent verse to start to help me explain the importance of trusting God in times of hardships would be James 1:2. For those who are reading this and are not familiar with this verse, I encourage you to stop reading and look it up. For those who aren’t up to opening their Bibles at this moment, here it is: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” This verse, I believe, is very inspiring because of the message it relays. If you are steadfast in your belief and trust of God and trust that He will help you if you ask, you will receive peace of mind and joy in what you do.

            If you were to see me right now, you would see a person, no more special than anyone else in the world, sitting alone in his room, struggling day to day with the same problem he is writing an article about, of helping people trust in God in times of suffering, which anyone and everyone can read. Just as I am dealing with this problem, lots of other people are, too. I know some of you out there reading this might not want to continue after I have just admitted that I am not a perfect Christian and struggle with trusting God all the time. But I do encourage you to keep going because I know, as well as you might, that some of the most devout Christians have had issues trusting God, too. I am thankful to be blessed in life to have a very amazing mom in my life to help guide me through studying the Bible. In fact, she was the first person to tell me that everyone who is human will have times in their life where they will distrust God. That gave me the drive and hope that I needed to find Truth.

            This leads me to the second verse I chose to help explain to you why it is best to trust in God. Those of you who are familiar with this passage, I hope, will agree with me that this verse is very amazing news to us all. Romans 8:18 says, “For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” When I read this, I feel it says, “The trials you are to come upon and stumble through in this life are not to be more important that the glory of God you will experience in Heaven.” To me, this is astonishing to hear. Knowing that the hardships I’ve been through, the ones I have yet to encounter in life, and seeing the trials and tribulations of others are not worth the comparison to the glory to come only makes my faith stronger and more steadfast.

            I am nearing the end of my time to share my hope of helping and encouraging you all to trust in God in your times of suffering and tribulations, and I want to personally address my new brothers and sisters who are preforming this weekend. If any of you are having troubles in your practicing and are fearful or feel anything of the like, take a minute to pray right now and ask God to be there next to you, guiding you through your acting. And for everyone else who just so happens to read this, I hope you take this message to heart and do your own reading and scriptural research on this topic. I believe the wisdom and insight that the Bible will give you on trusting God will be more powerful and something to trust more than what anyone else can tell you.

            I want to thank all of you who have come onto our blog and read and support our other bloggers and their articles. It is really amazing and encouraging to not only me but to all of us to see how many people come onto our site to read our articles and the comments you guys (and girls) have left us. With that being said, I would like to leave all of you with this verse from Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Thanks to all of you giving your time, and have a blessed day! (And good luck to those of you preforming this weekend!)

     Haron

Image by The Comma Queen