2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
James 1:2-4
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JAS.1.2-4
No one likes going through a tough situation. No one goes through life saying, “Where are the bad things that can happen? I want them all!” No one is wired that way. If there is, tell me about this person and what their life is like. No I don’t want to meet them. They’re the person that looks for bad things to happen, always has bad things happening to them and enjoys it. I’d like to observe from a far. Thanks. LoL.
But seriously, we don’t look with anticipation for the negative things to happen to us. We hope and pray that those things when in route to us somehow detour and find a new destination. Hopefully, off of a cliff never to be seen or heard from again. At the same time, we realize these things are apart of life. It’s not all sunny days peacefully sitting in a pasture. We have an adversary who seeks steal, kill and destroy us.
If you read last week I talked about going after the dreams and visions God has placed on the inside of you. That is a way God manifests His glory in and through us. Satan does not like that. He was made a beautiful creation of God who looked at his own beauty and instead of honoring God with it decided He could be God. God had created us in His image and likeness and desires to bring that image to its fullness through our character and the gifts and talents He has so graciously given us.
Again, while no one enjoys trials they are an opportunity for us to grow. When we realize that some of these obstacles are an attempt of our adversary to sway us from fulfilling our purpose and to glorify God our discouragement should turn into motivation. Kind of like Hulk Hogan in a wrestling match. He’s getting beat down and then his opponent does his finisher to take him out. Then all of a sudden he “hulks out” with a rush of adrenaline and beats his opponent. Or like one of my favorite movies is Rocky. He fights Clubber Lang and gets the snot beat out of him. He fights him a second time, but this time he has a renewed sense of who he is as a boxer and no longer fears him. He doesn’t enjoy getting hit in the face, but this renewed mind causes the blows to motivate him to win.
Basically, the fight is fixed y’all! We win in the end. These trials are temporary, but our victory is eternal. We have an adversary in Satan who looks to destroy us, but he can’t take what God through Jesus Christ has already given us.
This leads us into our throwback track of the week. A track from Mali Music entitled “I Hate You“. It’s from his 2009 release “The 2nd Coming“. For those who think Mali is a new artist he’s far from it. This song is a declaration of war against the devil. Letting him know that we’re tired of his mess and ready take back all that he has stolen from us for the glory of God. Check out this song and let us know what you think. Until next time….
Peace and blessings
