Posted Nov 16, 2020 |
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“Count it all Joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” James 1:2-3
If you have never had the chance to read James, do it. I had a hard time narrowing a verse down but this one is extremely important.
How many times do we ask, “why God, why?”
Bad things happen to us, we blame God and even resent Him for these trials. But He is saying, instead be joyful because great lessons are to be learned from what has happened and how you react.
Consider it all joy.
Many years ago, I endured several miscarriages. Of course I was sad about it. I’m not living my life the way God wants me to so He is just punishing me. Was my thought. After my husband and I got married we decided to start planning our family. We had a lot of months of no sign of pregnancy. Several years in fact. We sought out the advice of specialists.
They instructed us to try different techniques, follow my body temperature and check my ovulation. We prayed for God to give us peace and patience about not being pregnant yet. Well we finally got pregnant and were so excited. Then our first of several, back to back, miscarriages occurred.
We couldn’t believe it. I was starting to live the life God wanted me to, prayed, went to church again, read the Bible and even volunteered at our church. But still, no babies.
I just did not understand. We could have done the “why God, why” questioning, it hadn’t worked before so I needed to change my way of thinking. After one of the miscarriages, I became so sad that while taking a shower. I bawled like a baby unaware of the fact that I was in it for over an hour. I spent the time crying out to God to change my heart. Begging God to make me joyful so I could be grateful for what I have and accept what I don’t.
In prayer, I asked Him to use this tragedy for His purpose and what followed was amazing.
Immediately after that God gave me direction. We started a ministry for couples grieving the loss of babies and children. It served over 100 couples for three years. I was so filled with joy to minister to people who grieved the same grief I had. Never would I have been able to support them and love on them if I had not walked through it. I would never wish that type of grief or trial on anyone. It was what I needed to walk through in order to create a steadfast faith.
There are different seasons of life a person must go and grow through. Even though I am in a different season, I still get phone calls every now and then from people who have lost their babies, needing advice and I prayerfully give it. This experience has instilled in me a love for God’s guidance, knowing that His plans are always in my best interest and I now pray about everything. I have a steadfast faith, do you?
