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James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:Greetings. 2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy! 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4 and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

When you face a trial…

Let it strengthen you. In other words, consider this trial a joy because it’s going to make you better at facing more trials which is good because YOU’RE GOING TO FACE MORE TRIALS. James is suggesting that we stop treating our trial like something we just need to GET THROUGH so we can get back to our lives. He’s actually teaching that this TRIAL you’re facing right now, this IS your life. This TRIAL could make you STRONGER to face the next TRIAL. 

THIS IS HOW FAR YOU CAN GO RIGHT NOW. A TRIAL is really just an opportunity for you to discover where your current limitations are. This is how strong you currently are. This is all the enemy has to do to STOP YOU. And James teaches, if you change your relationship with that TRIAL you’re facing, you could actually start to consider this moment to be an opportunity to get STRONGER. 

Numbers 13:26 The men came back to Moses… 27 They gave Moses their report. They said, “We went into the land you sent us to. It really does have plenty of milk and honey! Here’s some fruit from the land. 28 But the people who live there are powerful. Their cities have high walls around them and are very large. We even saw members of the family line of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev Desert. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the central hill country. The Canaanites live near the Mediterranean Sea. They also live along the Jordan River.” 

Their focus is clearly completely on the bad here… They’re not pausing to consider, GOD HAS REALLY BROUGHT US THROUGH SO MANY TRIALS TO GET HERE AND HE CAN DELIVER US THROUGH THESE TRIALS TOO. 

30 Then Caleb interrupted the men speaking to Moses. He said, “We should go up and take the land. We can certainly do it.”

Nothing has to change about your circumstances for you to have peace and joy. You only have to change how you face your TRIALS. Every circumstance of your life can be the same tomorrow as it is today and YOU CAN BE DIFFERENT. You can change your perspective for your TRIAL.