Finding Joy in the trails

This year has possibly been one of the hardest years of my life.  I left the church I was serving at back at the end of May.  At that point I felt like I was not good at the one thing I am called to do.  My biggest fear in life is that I will go through life and not make an impact in anyone, all for His glory and not my own. Lately I have felt like my life is not making an impact on anyone since I am currently in-between churches and looking for my next place to serve. I had a really rough summer, and when I felt like things were looking up, I got knocked back down to earth recently.  I remember praying God if you are done using me, call me home!  Well apparently He is not done with me yet.  So I have decided that I am going to restart blogging. This time will be a little different than my past post.  I am going to try and blog 3 times a week, and it is going to be a devotional style blog for my readers.  We are going to take a journey through one of my favorite books in the Bible, James.  We are going to look at becoming a mature Disciple of Christ.  I have read James many times but lately I have felt called to study it again. I pray that God uses this blog to bring Him glory. I also hope this comes to help you, as well as me, to mature in Christ.

So the first session in James we are going to look at James 1:1-4 and Finding Joy in our trails.

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:

Greetings. 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

As we go through life we will all face trails.  It is something that is promised to us, and is used in the maturing process of our life, and faith. A lot of times we don't try to seek the joy in the hard times, and we feel like someone has stuck us in a washing machine on spin cycle.  We do at times try to seek comfort from things of the world instead of seeking comfort from the God of all comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3) 

James reminds us that the testing of our faith produces perseverance. Which in return leads to becoming a mature and complete Disciple of Christ.   A lot of "Christians" think that once they become a Christian that life will be all rainbows and butterflies.  This is simply not true.  We will be tested, there will be rough times in life. But this allows us to grow.   Peter also reminds us of this 

7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:7)

Enduring these Trails help mold us into who we are.  Think of the things you have went through in life, those things have changed you in some sort of way. When we seek God through our trails He molds us. Molds us into something that will be used to make an impact on the face of eternity.  It takes trails to mature us.   I am seeing that through out my this time in my life that I feel like I am in the wilderness, That God is using this to mold me even more. I will make it through this hard time, and I will come out stronger in the end.    

To quote a good friend, big supporter, and mentor in my life  "a set back is a set up for  a for a come back."- Heath Moncrief. 

If you are going through some type of trail, I pray that you seek God. Know that you are not alone, I am right there with you. But if you think you feel so distant from Christ, that He has not left your side. He is just waiting for you to surrender those trails to Him. Everything will be alright. Just seek Him! 

DJ McMickle

Ephesians 2:1-10