James 1:2 - "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."
by Joshua Devaratnam
I believe this is something the Lord has been putting in my heart the past few weeks.
Recently, I tested positive for Covid-19 and have been going through some financial difficulties. Nothing changed for a while, even when I kept on praying. My wife had been sick, and while the both of us continued praying, we did not receive instantaneous healing.
In a situation like this, it's easy to point fingers at God and think, "He is not doing anything". Some may even perceive this as 'not prospering in the areas of “health and wealth'.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of us have been taught, almost all our lives, that if our life is not exhibiting abundance or increase in materialistic wealth, or if we are faced with sickness that happens over a period of time, then something is wrong with us, with our faith.
Even if people don't say it out loud, it is implied that we are not declaring the ‘Word’ enough.
We expect God to instantaneously fill our bank balances with so much money and expect miracles to always happen. And when it doesn't, we either start thinking that we have failed somewhere or we start blaming God.
Suffering, health issues and financial loss are all part of our walk with Jesus. We cannot gauge a person's walk with the Holy Spirit by the amount of material blessings they have.
Yes, we are promised the favour of God, but we are also told that trials and tribulations are inevitable. The best part is we have been told to have joy when we face all kinds of trials.
James 1:2 - "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."
Notice that the verse uses the word 'when we face all kinds of trials' The best part is you are told to have 'joy' even when you fall into various trials.
How are we supposed to have Joy when facing trials? Most of the time it's difficult, right? It almost does not make sense.
But the Joy of the Lord is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We can only have Joy if there is a relationship with the Holy Spirit because the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit can only happen when we have a walk with Him. Of course this progresses over time, and progressively we improve where the effects of self are reduced day by day as Christ is seen more and more in our lives.
Remember how Jesus slept during a storm? There are so many sermons preached about this but how do we apply this in real life? How do we rest when our whole family is infected by Covid? How do we rest not knowing where our next meal is coming from? Or when someone dies?
If only we were taught better and shown in scripture how dangerous it is to only preach blessings. If only we were taught to adequately prepare a believer and show them that problems are part and parcel of our walk with Christ. Then we would have a generation that will not measure their faith in Christ by the amount of success or blessings they receive, but by the depth of their walk with Him.
Jesus was teaching us that storms are inevitable. The storms in life will come. But Jesus being one and completely under the dominion of the Father, He could rest knowing God was in control of everything, the same way we should.
So, the assurance that we have is that the Holy Spirit walks with us, even when we face troubles but choose to walk Him in obedience. God was with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. God closed the mouth of the lions when Daniel was in the lion's den.
We love quoting all these stories, but when trials actually happen, can we truly still rely on God completely?
The point here is, all these people went through suffering because of their faith but the Hope that they had was that God walked with them. They saw His favour in their situation.
This may come as a surprise to some, but the more you stand for Him, the more you see His hand in your circumstances.
Sometimes miracles can happen and sometimes it just doesn't happen. We hear testimony after testimony of people getting healed and obtaining more wealth. But what about the ones who are faithful but still wrestle with such problems?
Are they not 'Real Christians'? Are they doing something wrong?
What I have come to realise is that God is Sovereign in all these situations. Sometimes the closer we walk with God, the greater the tribulations we face. My point is this - along with favour, come trials and tribulations as well.
But having Joy through a trial reveals the depth of our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Thriving, prospering and blessings are not always going to happen the way we want it. But we can 'thrive' in our walk with God, we can 'prosper' in our walk with Jesus. That is the ultimate blessing we should look forward to. A thriving walk with God.
And whether we are blessed materialistically or not, it should not matter because the fact that we have Jesus in our lives should be enough. (The Lord is My Shepherd I lack nothing - Psalm 23:1)
But does this mean we don't strive to be better at work and what we are purposed to do? Of course not. It’s just that we must always prioritise our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Whether we are blessed or going through trials along the way, we count the WHOLE experience as Joy because JESUS is at the centre of our lives. Let’s not fixate on the usual blessing we keep looking forward to.
The manifestation of the fruit or your gifting should NOT be the centre of your Christian faith. The focal point should be our relationship with God.
Jesus was resurrected after going through immense persecution till the point of death.
Almost every person I see in the Bible went through persecution for their faith. How is it that all of us seem to be living fairly comfortable lives?
Of course, I'm not saying that we should be beaten up and thrown into prison, but doing basic things, like speaking the Truth and standing up for our Faith, even those seem to be missing in our current world.
We are so afraid of offending people by speaking the Truth and so afraid to threaten our semblance of popularity with friends in our respective circles that we compromise on our faith all the time.
Jesus said that people will hate us because we stand for Him. Yet, we really don’t see many people being hated for their faith, do we? All of us seem to be getting on just fine. As long as we don't stir the boat, all is well, right?
The reality is, if we truly have a relationship with God, at some point, we will be disliked by certain people and we will face problems. But, it is important to also keep in mind that when we stand for Jesus, there is also the favour of God that will be upon our lives. So even though life can be full of bumps, we have the Holy Spirit that helps us navigate through it all provided we spend time getting to know Him. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8)
We have heard the phrase, “still waters run deep”. If everything seems to be smooth-sailing and if we have never rocked the boat, shouldn’t we ask ourself whether we are truly a disciple of Christ or not?
Do we actually have a genuine walk with Him, or is the ‘still water’ we are treading so superficial with something brewing beneath just waiting to rare its head.
If there is one thing to take away from this article today, it’s this.
The gauge of a real Disciple and Follower of Jesus is NOT how much money we have in our bank account nor how much we are blessed with material possession. The gauge is whether or not we walk a genuine walk with our Living God.
A question I like to ask myself is this - if I lost everything today, will I still love Jesus the same or will I be shaken by the loss of my material wealth? Has my security been in money?
I can tell you this, the past few weeks have truly revealed my heart, in that I was still pursuing success. I am not saying this is wrong but when that of the world becomes your idol then it becomes a problem.
Its not money that is the issue but it is the love of money that becomes the issue. Money should always be regarded as just a tool to advance the kingdom the way the Holy Spirit guides and instructs us.
Ultimately its Him that blesses and it is Him that decides how that blessing is to be utilised if our wills are truly submitted to His will. The tipping point is when we idolise the blessing more than the Creator and Lord who blessed us with it.
God has given me another chance to shift my focus back on Him and I'm truly grateful to passionately and genuinely follow Him again. I have returned to my first love - Jesus.
I truly hope this article blesses you. Remember that Jesus loves you and is calling all of us to go deeper in our walk with Him.
Have a nice day!
-Joshua Devaratnam-
Founder of The Courage Catalogue.
Comments