Let your valley be the reason for your victory
We learn a life-changing lesson from James about suffering
Verse of the Day: “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles 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.” - James 1:2-4
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way”........Notice the word choice here. Not “if troubles come your way” but “when”. Jesus reminds us in John 16:33 that in this world we WILL have trouble. James, who wrote today’s verse of the day, is the blood brother of Jesus. If anyone knows the words of Jesus in the New Testament, it would be James. This verse is very encouraging because it reminds our weak flesh that we will have adversity. We cannot avoid it. We need trials. We need the valley. We need trouble. How can we appreciate spring in Ohio if we didn’t have to go through the winter? How can we appreciate cool fall weather if we didn’t suffer through the dog days of July? Bad times are coming. They may be here already. But they don’t have to have the final say.
“Consider it an opportunity for great joy”........This fires me up. Anything can be viewed as an opportunity with the correct mindset. This verse instantly came to mind for me last night. My Hilltop Hoops fall basketball team that I’ve been walking in Christ with since May, literally seeing these boys every week and taking them to and from every practice and game, suffered a very tough loss in an emotional game last night. My boys were broken because they did not win. They didn’t want to talk to anyone. They were so frustrated.
But the Holy Spirit spoke to me in that moment. First, I needed to be humbled. As their leader, they need to learn from me. If I act like a lunatic and start sobbing because we didn’t get our way, then that will spill over to them. Leadership starts at the top. If they see their leader calm and composed, it will help them to settle down and learn from the experience.
Second, this is an opportunity. What good is faith if we always got what we wanted? What good would Joseph’s story be if he was never sold into slavery and imprisoned? How would Rahab be qualified to hide some men if she was never a prostitute? How would Solomon, the wise author of Proverbs, come to rule the nation of Israel if his father David had not committed his biggest blemish and slept with his mother Bethsheba? What significance would the cross have if Jesus didn’t roll the stone of the tomb and rise?
As you can see here, every single person used in a significant way by God has had to endure testing, temptation and periods of struggle. We cannot avoid it. But if our mindset is right, we can actually relish times when things don’t go the way we want. God’s plan for us is better than our biggest and brightest human plans. He is the ultimate architect. And His will is constantly being done. We were not supposed to win that game last night, however, we can learn from it and use the hurt and disappointment as an opportunity to get our souls restored by coming to God.
“For you know that when your faith is tested”........Word choice is key here again. It’s not “if” but “when”. When we are following Christ, our faith WILL be tested. And it will be tested more as we walk with Jesus more intimately. Why? We have an enemy of our souls that hates God and hates His creation. Satan wants nothing more than to pry us away from a close relationship with God. Close relationship with God leads to peace, it leads to life change here on earth and eternal life in Heaven. The enemy doesn’t want any of us to experience that. So how do we respond to spiritual battles?
Get closer to God. When you feel things beginning to go against you, you have to stop in the moment and open up to the Lord. We have to be reminded, through God’s word, that this is not uncommon for believers. What are some of those examples from the word? Let’s dive in.
“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.” - 1 Peter 4:12
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” - 1 Peter 5:8-9
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so you can endure it.” - 1 Corinthians 10:13
God’s word lets us know that tough times, hardship and struggle are to be expected. It’s what we sign up for when we give our lives to Jesus. However, we have to endure. There’s no way around it.
“Your endurance has a chance to grow”.......This verse here is the opportunity that James speaks of. We cannot get the body that we want if we don’t exercise it. We can’t get better at reading if we don’t ever read. In the same way, our endurance cannot grow if we don’t experience anything that puts it to the test. As my team experienced last night, blowing a 17-point second half lead and failing to close the game late, our endurance was not where it needed to be to win.
However, a challenge like that, which my players felt was ‘trouble’ when the final buzzer sounded, has given them an opportunity for their endurance to grow. With the right mindset, we can allow our faith to be strengthened and our endurance to grow when we face tough times. This is the single best way to show your problems that they are not bigger than your God. As Christ followers, we cannot avoid struggle. We must suffer in order to experience Christ’s glory. God’s word assures us of this.
“In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share in his glory, we must also share his suffering.” - Romans 8:17
“So let it grow”......I love this right here. James says to give up control and let it grow. That’s a major turning point in the walk with Christ. Dying to our ways and aligning with His. God’s plan for us is greater than anything we can drum up on our own, however, if we refuse to align with His plan, which has to include obedience and suffering, then we will never experience the glory that He has for us. We must allow suffering to grow our endurance. Why? The next verse explains the eternal benefit.
“For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing”......A fully developed endurance comes along with a fully developed faith. Will we experience that here on earth? I am not sure. I tend to believe that our struggles and trials will never end as we live in our current lives, we will just get better at overcoming them. Which speaks exactly to endurance.
If we endure, Jesus says that we will be victorious!
“Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.” - Revelation 2:10
Do you want to be victorious with Jesus? Then approach your suffering with a new mindset. Understand that tough times are expected, but we have a Lord and Savior who gives us not only a way out, but an eternal victory that cannot be taken away.
I believe that the fully developed, perfect and complete, needing nothing state that James speaks of is what we will experience in Heaven if we endure to the end. We need fiery trials for our faith to grow, and thank God that our endurance is developed in these tough times.
The green only grows in the valley and that’s where God is.
Let your valley be the reason for your victory.
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