Recently I heard a preacher echo a truth that God’s been sharing with me, about pain and trials. Sometimes I wonder why God doesn’t cushion me in pillows and feathers and puppies.
Sometimes I wonder why pain even exists. But I’d be lying if I told you that I come out of trials worse off than when I entered them. I’d be lying if I told you that my character doesn’t grow from the experience. The truth is this - victory in my situation may not look like instant healing. Victory might look more like choosing joy in the trial. Because that would be spitting in the face of the enemy. And as our preacher put it - our default then becomes resilience. We win when we choose Christ - when we choose joy, love, faith.
James 1:2-4 ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’
Like a valuable but hardened rock, we must go through furnace in order to be refined. (Psalm 66:10 ‘For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver)
So instead of asking God to take the pain and trials away from me, I’m praying - may I learn everything I possibly can throughout this trial, so that I can be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
- Rebecca Ng
Sometimes I wonder why pain even exists. But I’d be lying if I told you that I come out of trials worse off than when I entered them. I’d be lying if I told you that my character doesn’t grow from the experience. The truth is this - victory in my situation may not look like instant healing. Victory might look more like choosing joy in the trial. Because that would be spitting in the face of the enemy. And as our preacher put it - our default then becomes resilience. We win when we choose Christ - when we choose joy, love, faith.
James 1:2-4 ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’
Like a valuable but hardened rock, we must go through furnace in order to be refined. (Psalm 66:10 ‘For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver)
So instead of asking God to take the pain and trials away from me, I’m praying - may I learn everything I possibly can throughout this trial, so that I can be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
- Rebecca Ng
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