James says: “… when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. . . . For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
James 1:2-4(NLT) Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
The Bible says that when troubles of any kind come our way, we need to consider it an opportunity for great joy, for your faith to be tested, to grow, to develop, to be perfected, to be complete and to fulfil your need completely.
What are difficult times? It is a time when you appear to be going in the opposite direction of your dreams. There is a sense of no spiritual growth and development. This is also referred to as the Wilderness. It is a time when Satan wants to convince you that your right standing with God is not at the level it should be.
Do difficult times mean that I have messed-up? Difficult times is a time of preparation for our destiny in God. So, it is not God’s rejection but His place of preparation.
John 9:1-2(NLT) As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” His disciples asked Him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
What a strange question; who sinned? Did the man sin or did his parents’ sin? Right away the assumption is that because he was born blind, it must be sin. We must stop this! When people go through difficult times, we want to ask what is wrong.
John 9:3(NLT) “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so that the power of God could be seen in him.”
Deuteronomy 8:2(NIV) Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
God is up to something good. Difficult times are times to seek the heart of God, which will produce character and strength in us. It is a time to maintain vision. FACE your fears and doubts. FEAR God. FOCUS until you achieve the life that God has in store for you. I repeat: God is up to something good.