"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
James 1:3-4
In life we often roll our eyes when people say things like "that which does not kill you makes you stronger." And this might seem similar. Oh, great, another justification for suffering and pain. And yet, even though those things are never going to make the top of our lists of things that we want to go through, God has a plan, and that plan includes our happiness, not just getting tougher and tougher so we can take more and more until we collapse. In God's plan, when our faith is tried, it doesn't necessarily make us stronger, but it does help us to learn patience. And when we get really, really good at patience combined with faith, then we don't feel any black holes in ourselves. We don't feel desperate about anything we need, because we know that God will always provide. And I think that is the point. God is making us into people that are immune to worry, immune to stress, who are strong, confident, and free to make choices and take appropriate risks, because we are not afraid of anything that the world can throw at us. We have God's support in doing the right thing. Today, in the midst of whatever trial we are going through, let's remember that God is making us resilient and impervious and perfect and whole... and as we learn to be God's kind of bulletproof, then maybe we will start believing that we are the superheroes he knows we can be.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
James 1:3-4
In life we often roll our eyes when people say things like "that which does not kill you makes you stronger." And this might seem similar. Oh, great, another justification for suffering and pain. And yet, even though those things are never going to make the top of our lists of things that we want to go through, God has a plan, and that plan includes our happiness, not just getting tougher and tougher so we can take more and more until we collapse. In God's plan, when our faith is tried, it doesn't necessarily make us stronger, but it does help us to learn patience. And when we get really, really good at patience combined with faith, then we don't feel any black holes in ourselves. We don't feel desperate about anything we need, because we know that God will always provide. And I think that is the point. God is making us into people that are immune to worry, immune to stress, who are strong, confident, and free to make choices and take appropriate risks, because we are not afraid of anything that the world can throw at us. We have God's support in doing the right thing. Today, in the midst of whatever trial we are going through, let's remember that God is making us resilient and impervious and perfect and whole... and as we learn to be God's kind of bulletproof, then maybe we will start believing that we are the superheroes he knows we can be.
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