Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn’t make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it!"
John answered, "I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life."
"But you must!" implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us."
"All right," panted John, "I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ’O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.’"
It’s hard to be thankful when you know you are getting ready to receive something painful! This morning we will finish our series on weathering the storms. Last night we looked at what to remember when you feel caged in by the circumstances and storms in your life. The first thing we said is to don’t let it steal your song. Just like Paul and Silas, who were put in prison and beaten and flogged. In the midst of their caged in experience there they were singing hymns and praying to God. You want to talk about someone who had the right to stop singing, they did. But they refuse to let the circumstances of their situation steal their song. We need that same resolve in the midst of our storms. When they were singing and praying to God the scriptures said that the others were watching them. We need to remember as well, that we are on display. When we are going through the storms people are watching us to see how we react in those times. We need to remember that we can have a real impact for God. The other thing that we should remember is that whatever your storm is God is gonna setcha free. God has a history of setting people free from their storms. When He does your freedom will have an impact on others. The jailor who witnessed it all said what must I do to be saved. Throughout the scriptures when other people saw God at work and setting His people free, they were enlightened about just how powerful the one true God really is.
Now this morning I want to close up by looking at why the struggles we go through in this life are worth the trouble. I know I said right after the joke I told that it’s hard to be thankful when you know you are getting ready to receive something painful, but in essence that is what our scripture asks us to do this morning.
James 1:2-4
These verses are so rich. But here we go, James said we should consider the trials that we face with pure joy! Maybe that was how Paul and Silas was able to keep their song in the midst of the suffering and persecution they were going through. Does it mean that you walk around all bubbly saying, “Yeah, my life is falling in around me and I couldn’t be happier!!” I think the joy that is being referred to isn’t necessarily a giddy joy, but an inner joy and confidence that you know God is in control. But here are some things that we see in the text that let’s us know that struggles are worth going through. Let’s look at verse 3 again. In talking about the trials it says, “ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” Now there are two things in this verse that I see, we will look at one now. The first thing about why the struggles are worth it is this: Without the struggles your faith is never tested. If you want to know how genuine and real your faith is, there is nothing like struggles to find out. Peter even alludes to it in I Peter 1:6,7 when he says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by the fire--maybe proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” There is nothing like the fire of trials and storms to find out just how much faith you have. You know it would be incredibly easy to serve God if every thing went your way and nothing ever went bad. Although after a while I think you might have a tendency to take those blessings for granted and might even forget where they came from. If God was some sugar daddy who gave you everything you wanted and made your life a bed of roses things would definitely be different, but not necessarily better. How is your faith ever going to grow stronger if it never has a time that you really have to depend upon it. Let me ask you, let’s look at Gideon. Gideon had a storm going on in his life. His people were being just abused by the Midianites. Gideon was so scared that he was hiding in a wine press. God came to Gideon and said I want you to be the person to lead your people to victory over the Midianites. Gideon had some real issues here with himself. And when you have issues with whether or not you can do something, then you have issues with God as well, because you are saying to God, “I don’t believe you can do all things.” I don’t think I’m the person you can use here. But God convinces Gideon to give things a try after some fleeces. Gideon starts off with thousands of soldiers, but through a process of weeding out God leaves Gideon with 300 soldiers to take on an army that had thousands and thousands. I’ll be if Gideon didn’t follow what God wanted to the tee and God used them to defeat the Midianites. Gideon was no longer the same because His faith was tested and He passed. It was a struggle, but without that struggle Gideon would have still been in a winepress afraid for his life and his faith not making much of a difference. But Gideon through his obedience went on to make the Hebrews Hall of Faith. Job was a man that the devil said he had his doubts about. He said, “God the only reason he is so faithful and wonderful to you is that you bless everything he touches. Let him have some struggles in his life and lose some things that really means something to him and then see how he acts. Most of us know, that Job went through some incredible struggles as the devil took his family, his possessions, his friends were accusing of him living in sin, why else would God allow these things to happen to Him. Yet Job, as tough as it was held on to his faith in God and was blessed through it in the end. Now Job is known for his great faith. He would have never been known for his great faith if his life continued to be a bed of roses and he never had any adversity. We should be glad for what God can do through those trials. So yes, struggles are worth it, because without it your faith would never be tested.
So now let’s go back and look at verse 3 from our text again. Once again in reference to the trials that we are facing it says, “because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” So besides the fact that it’s through trials that are faith is tested, it through these tests, these difficult times that we learn perseverance. James wasn’t the only person that wrote this truth under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul did as well. Listen to what he wrote in Romans 5:3,4 “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Now when you look at the Greek word that perseverance is translated from it also can be translated endurance or patience. So plain and simple, without the struggles you will never learn patience. If you wonder about patience really being something of value is all you have to do is to look at what the Holy Spirit seeks to produce in the life of each believer. Galatians 5:22 tells us the fruit that the Spirit wants to produce in our life. It says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” All of these things are things that God has decided that we need in our lives. Patience was right there with them, but you don’t learn patience without going through some difficult times that helps develop it in you. You’ve probably always heard the saying that whatever you do don’t pray for patience because God will give you something to be patient about. Well, that is true, because without the situations in our life that require patience and endurance we will never learn those things. If you want to teach your kids about how to ride a bike you can talk to them about it all you want. You can tell them how you do it, but eventually the only way they are going to learn to do it is by getting on the bike and doing it. It’s the same way in our lives, the only way we are going to learn patience is to be in situations that require it so that we can develop it. We need patience in our lives because it is at the very heart of who God is. Look at the patience that God had with the Israelites when He was leading them to the Promise Land. Look at the patience that God had with so many people in the scriptures. But most importantly look at the patience that God has had with you in your own lives. Look at how many times you have disappointed Him and let Him down in your lives, yet He was patient with you and ready to forgive you. Peter says that the reason Christ hasn’t come back is that He is patient wanting all people to come to repentance. So He continues to endure people’s failures and struggles while at the same time trying to draw them back home. If that is the very heart of God, don’t we need that patience in our life. If you are going to impact others for God don’t you need to have the image of your Father. If your Father is a patient God, slow to anger and abounding in love isn’t that who you should be. But the only way God can develop that perseverance or patience that you need in your life is to allow you to go through situations that will help you develop it.
The last thing that our text tells us is simply this: Without the struggles you will be weak and incomplete. Now we know that because of the struggles we have our faith tested, which is a good thing, and as our faith is tested we learn perseverance or patience which is a good thing. But James isn’t finished here, verse 4 he says, “Perseverance must finish it’s work in you so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” God’s goal is for you to grow into maturity as a believer. It’s his goal for you to grow into the image of His son. If he takes the struggles away from you, you will never grow into the image of Christ. Did you know that Christ even grew from struggles. Hebrews 5:8 says, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” Now it doesn’t mean that Christ went from disobedience to obedience, He was absolutely without sin. But through His suffering He had opportunities to obey and was faithful. But Christ learned, he matured, through obedience during the times he suffered. God wants to bring us into the image of Christ and by giving us a life without any struggles that would never happen.
A man found a cocoon of an emperor moth and took it home so he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. One day a small opening appeared. The man sat and watched the moth for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. To the man it appeared as if the moth had gotten as far as it could in breaking out of the cocoon and was stuck.
Out of the kindness the man decided to help the moth. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon so that the moth could get out. Soon the moth emerged, but it had a swollen body and small shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the moth, expecting that in time the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would simultaneously contract to its proper size.
Neither happened. In fact, that little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.
The man in his kindness and haste didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body into the wings so that the moth would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
So whereas some people think God doesn’t care because He has allowed these difficult times in their life, it’s really quite the opposite. God has allowed those difficult times in their life because He does care. You will never grow to be everything that God has called you to be without those difficult times. Matter of fact, I would say that just as that moth was crippled when his struggles were removed, we would be crippled and ineffective if all of our struggles were removed.
So as much we hate to go through struggles and storms in our lives, the truth is, we need them in our lives. Without them our faith would never be tested. Sometimes we need a faith check. Often times it’s in those faith checks that our faith is strengthened and goes to a new level, like Gideon and so many others. We need those struggles so that we can develop patience or endurance in our lives. Once again we know that the Holy Spirit wants to produce it in our lives, the scriptures tell us that, but we have to learn it and develop it in the midst of those struggles. So even though the struggles and storms bring us a lot of trouble, what God does with them makes them worth the trouble. I want to close with a very well known scripture that we need to remember. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” So whatever situation you have in your life you have the promise from God that He is going to take that situation and work it to your good. He is going to develop in your life whatever you need through the situations in your life. We serve a great God who always has our best interest in mind. Our best interest is whatever helps shape us more into the image of His son. As we come to a close this morning maybe you just want to thank God for what He has done in your life through the struggles. Or maybe you are in the midst of the storms right now and you are struggling and you just want God to help you have that inner joy because you know God is at work. Whatever your need is the altars are open. Let’s pray.
