Armed with a ‘Relentless’ energy drink (such as he uses to keep alert during the long night-drive to Cornwall) as a visual aid, Stephen spoke this morning on the subject of perseverance from James 1:2-12.
Life can be tough at times and is not all plain sailing, but James urges us to ‘consider it pure joy’ whenever we face trials and difficulties. When something comes against us, our response needs to be to choose joy, rather than simply grumble or complain or lose hope. We must not let anger, frustration or pain govern our response to trials and temptations. Instead, we must respond with the joy of the Lord which becomes our strength.
Faith is like an energy drink; it becomes the means of sustenance through difficulties and feeds us, allowing us to persevere through these. As we learn to ask God for what we need (including wisdom during those times when we don’t know what to do), He supplies all we need; the alternative is to give up, which means we lose direction and focus and stability and joy will disappear.
God wants our daily lives to reflect His glory. Trials and temptations are inevitable, but joy and thankfulness are the way to deal with them. Our reward for perseverance, James tells us, is a crown of life (Js 1:12), therefore we need to be ‘joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.’ (Rom 12:12) Heb 12:2-3 reminds us to fix our eyes on Jesus, who Himself knew joy even as He faced the trials of the cross, because He could see God’s eternal purposes being worked out.