Patience in the Pain

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  – James 1:2-4

When we don’t feel good, when we’re in the middle of a sticky relational situation, or emotionally empty, it can be incredibly difficult to see what God is doing in the moment. Our sight becomes foggy, and we question whether He’s truly with us in our pain. Our perception clouds the deeper into our hurt we get, and our faith is refined when we don’t see any improvement. The last thing we want to do when we are facing trials is to wait in the middle of it and endure the discomfort.

We wonder what is going on, but God is doing a deeper work while we wonder. While we wait, our patience grows.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:2-4

It doesn’t seem to make sense: how can we consider suffering joy? How can we grin and bear it when it hurts just to breathe? 

But there’s something deeper here to pay attention to. In some mysterious, upside-down way of God’s Kingdom, our trials and suffering actually strengthen our patience and faith.

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I’m over at Crossmap talking about keeping patient in our pain. Would you join me there?