My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy.  You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering.  If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be. James 1:2-4

I can’t remember the last time I did the happy dance when trouble came my way, but according to James, we should be happy because the testing of our faith causes us to be patient. My take on this is that at some point, we stop focusing on the trouble and set our resolve to continue doing and trust God with the outcome. Not only that but he goes on to say that we will be mature and complete. Wow, I’d settle with just mature, but evidently, mature and complete speaks of something better. Dictionary.com defines mature as; completed, perfected, or elaborated in full by the mind. Complete on the other hand is; having all parts or elements; lacking nothing; whole; entire; full; thorough; entire; total; undivided, uncompromised, or unmodified: a complete victory. WHEW! I’m thinking a bit different now. Complete is definitely an added bonus.

This takes me back to the vision I had a very long time ago where Jesus spoke to me and said, “Keep your eyes on me!” My comment to him was, “If I’m watching you, I’ll run into things.” His response as he smiled was, “I’ll direct your steps. Trust me!” Very good and simple lesson but so hard to do. We sometimes trust in ourselves more than we trust in God because it’s easier to trust what we see than what we don’t see.

Don’t believe me? When was the last time you were sick? Did you believe the Word of God that says, by His stripes I am healed and tell the symptoms to take a hike? Or did you run to the doctors? How can we develop faith and have patience for it if we’re unwilling to trust and believe that His Word is more real than the symptoms on our body? I’m not saying don’t go to the doctor, hopefully you’ll see the point I’m trying to make here. We have a tendency to do what we can do before we go to God and that’s not what He wants. He said, “Take my yoke on you and learn of me, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” James said that the testing of our faith (so we know it will be tested) works patience. So let patience have her perfect work. Lets learn to trust God more than we trust our senses because He is bigger than all of that.

Such a journey you’ve taken us on, God. Sometimes we just don’t get it right, other times we do, but all in all, you’re so patient with us. Your love never fails, your mercies are new every morning and your faithfulness, oh my, never ends. We’re so grateful for life’s lessons and that you are not just leaving us with maturity, you’re completing us. Our trust in you is growing as we spend time in your presence every day. I declare my love for you and appreciate what you’re doing in my life. Mature and complete, I will stand before you to hear you say, “Well done! Enter into the joy of the Lord.” I look forward to that day.