Tag: James 1:2-4

Becoming Spiritually Durable

Moses’ conversations with the Lord may have happened thousands of years ago, but there’s something so relatable about them. Consider, for example, how he complains to God after Pharaoh increases the Israelites’ workload: “Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.’” (Exodus 5:22-23, NIV)

Maybe you’ve felt like Moses at some point– you stepped out in faith and took a risk to obey the Lord. Despite your best efforts, things didn’t turn out as you hoped or expected. If we’re pursuing God’s will, should we anticipate encountering difficulty? Is it reasonable to expect the path of God’s will to be free of roadblocks or conflict? While we tend to label challenges and setbacks as “bad” because they’re painful, uncomfortable, or frustrating, I don’t think God sees them through the same negative lens. From His vantage point, they’re just tools that are part of the process helping us to grow, mature, and understand our need for Him. 

Think of this concept in terms of physical fitness. If you want to have a healthy cardiovascular system, strong muscles, and durable bones, then challenges need to be a regular part of your exercise routine. Instructors for my spin classes are constantly pushing me to increase resistance to make it harder to pedal. It’s grueling, but if a workout is too easy, it’s not building endurance or strength. Making our bodies work hard may not feel good in the moment, but it produces durability that will benefit us in the long run. 

This same principle applies in our spiritual lives. We don’t grow through easy, comfortable, or predictable circumstances. Progressing in spiritual maturity comes from trusting God through conflicts, roadblocks, and setbacks. Let’s take a look at some passages of Scripture and see what we can learn.

1. Difficulties help us build perseverance and character. Trials remind us that our hope isn’t in earthly circumstances going the way we want, but in knowing that God deeply loves us. “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5, NIV)

2. Hardships lead us to experience joy knowing we’re persevering and maturing in our faith. “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, NIV)

3. Trials refine our faith and show that it’s authentic. God receives glory when we endure hardships without losing hope in Him. “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7, NIV)

4. Setbacks keep us spiritually sharp. When the enemy tries to thwart God’s plans, we can fight back using the spiritual authority we have through Christ. As we stand firm in the faith, we experience God’s power at work in and through us. Trusting the Lord through hardships also gives us empathy and unity with other believers experiencing similar difficulties. “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, NIV)

5. Challenges help us clarify our purpose and identify areas we need to surrender to the Lord. Sometimes they humble us and reveal sin we’ve been ignoring. Once we confess and repent, we’re freed to move forward and focus more completely on God and His plans for us. We’re also able to identify with Jesus, who experienced and overcame opposition. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3, NIV)

When you experience setbacks or conflicts as you’re pursuing God’s will, don’t fall into the trap the Israelites did. Although Moses provides reassurance that the Lord will redeem them and bring them to the land He promised their forefathers, they refuse to receive his encouragement: “Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.” (Exodus 6:9, NIV) Sometimes we can be so mired in difficult circumstances that we reject truth offered to us by others. In seasons of challenge and hardship beware of becoming bitter or incapable of receiving encouragement. Don’t let setbacks harden your heart, causing hopeful and positive words to bounce off you.

Rather than seeing difficulties as roadblocks to accomplishing God’s plans, we can see them as necessary parts of the maturing process. Jesus reminds the disciples: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NIV) When we expect troubles to be part of life, we’re less likely to let them surprise or discourage us. Instead, we equip ourselves with encouragement from God’s Word. Then we’re more prepared to press on and trust Him to use hardships for our good and His glory.

If you’re in a season of challenge or discouragement right now, let Mac Powell’s song “New Creation” lift your spirits today. Click here to listen.

Post inspired by Jen Wilkin’s God of Deliverance: A Study of Exodus 1-18, Lifeway Press, 2021.

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Becoming Real

As Lisa Harper sums up final thoughts on the book of Job, she writes, “Perusing Job’s story for more than a year now has taught me how to better rest in God’s sovereign goodness regardless of what’s going on in my little corner of the world. Job’s well-lived life has helped soften some of my sharpest edges in a spiritual Velveteen Rabbit kind of way.” (p. 155)

If you’re not familiar with Margery Williams’ classic story The Velveteen Rabbit, the significance of that reference may be lost on you, which would be a shame. Rather than summarizing it, here are several excerpts that capture its essence:  

THERE was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen. On Christmas morning, when he sat wedged in the top of the Boy’s stocking, with a sprig of holly between his paws, the effect was charming…

For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real…

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

As the story unfolds, the Velveteen Rabbit experiences the joy of becoming “Real” as he receives the love and affection of the Boy. His shabby fur, missing whiskers, and tattered ears become badges of honor revealing his position as the Boy’s most beloved toy. But, after comforting him through a bout with scarlet fever, the Rabbit finds himself thrown in a trash heap with all the other germ-infested toys. Devastated, he laments his situation:

He thought of those long sunlit hours in the garden–how happy they were–and a great sadness came over him….Of what use was it to be loved and lose one’s beauty and become Real if it all ended like this? And a tear, a real tear, trickled down his little shabby velvet nose and fell to the ground.

And then a strange thing happened. For where the tear had fallen a flower grew out of the ground, a mysterious flower, not at all like any that grew in the garden…. And presently the blossom opened, and out of it there stepped a fairy…

“Little Rabbit,” she said, “don’t you know who I am?”

The Rabbit looked up at her, and it seemed to him that he had seen her face before, but he couldn’t think where.

“I am the nursery magic Fairy,” she said. “I take care of all the playthings that the children have loved. When they are old and worn out and the children don’t need them any more, then I come and take them away with me and turn them into Real.”

“Wasn’t I Real before?” asked the little Rabbit.

“You were Real to the Boy,” the Fairy said, “because he loved you. Now you shall be Real to every one...And he found that he actually had hind legs! Instead of dingy velveteen he had brown fur, soft and shiny…He gave one leap and the joy of using those hind legs was so great that he went springing about the turf on them, jumping sideways and whirling round as the others did.”

There is beautiful, biblical truth woven in the fabric of that sweet story that echoes what we see in the book of Job. Suffering, hardships, and trials are the tools God uses to build our character, to give us depth, and to help us experience Him in deeper ways. They help us to become more authentic and empathetic. Job concludes the book saying, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5, NIV) Trials create a special kind of beauty and connection to God that only come through first-hand experience.

Much like the Velveteen Rabbit, Job’s story shows us that suffering is an honor and a privilege. And just as the Rabbit receives new life at the end, a similar thing happens to Job:

“The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.”(Job 42:12-13, NIV)

Suffering may not be our favorite item in God’s toolbox, but these stories remind us that it has a purpose. We’re going to face it, but it’s our choice to let it make us “Real.” And, like the Velveteen Rabbit, one day we’ll experience the amazing reality of new life in eternity with Christ. 

Lisa Harper quotes Barbara Johnson, who says, “We are Easter people living in a Good Friday world.” So, for now “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, NIV)

Michael Ketterer’s song “Spirit Lead Me” exemplifies the beauty of surrendering and trusting God through trials. Listen and make it your prayer today.

To read The Velveteen Rabbit in its entirety, click on this link.

Lisa Harper, Job: A Story of Unlikely Joy, Lifeway Press, 2018.

Suffering Isn’t Punishment

We have lots of names for it: payback, karma, retribution. We use clichés like “you get what you deserve” or “you had it coming to you.” Often, we examine a person’s life to make sense of why they’re enduring hardships. And, like Job’s friends, we make faulty assumptions like this: “(1) All suffering is the result of sin. (2) God punishes each act of sin with a penalty that corresponds to the gravity of the sin. (3) Suffering is proof of personal guilt.”1

It’s clear in Scripture that God punishes evil and sin. A few notable examples are the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 & 19 and the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 (you can read them later if you need a reminder).  

That said, any punishment we deserve for sin has already been dealt with on the cross: “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-26, NIV)

Anyone who puts faith in Jesus as Savior is no longer subject to the penalty that sinners deserve because restitution has already been made. So, if we’re not being punished, what other reasons might there be for our suffering? Here are a few:

Discipline: Sometimes hard things happen to us because we need to be disciplined. When we receive correction from God and let it refine us, we prove that we are His children and that we trust Him: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?” The passage continues, “God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:7, 10b-11, NIV)

If you’re enduring hardship right now, ask the Lord to make it clear if He’s disciplining you for some reason. Invite a godly friend to give you some perspective. Maybe you need accountability on some sinful behaviors or attitudes that you’re overlooking.

Spiritual Maturity: Sometimes God allows hardships because they develop spiritual maturity in us and prove our faith is genuine. Suffering can foster character qualities we need to grow in our relationship with the Lord: “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, NIV)

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7, NIV)

Perhaps there’s a latent quality in you that God is uncovering through what you’re enduring. Or maybe there’s an aspect of your character that God is refining through your hardship.

To Display God’s Glory: As Bible teacher Lisa Harper says, sometimes our suffering is a conduit for God’s glory. When we lean into Him and trust Him, we grow closer to the Lord. We also impact others with the hope we find in Him, whether we get a favorable outcome or not.

When Jesus and His disciples encountered a man blind from birth, they asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Later, the man shared his story with the Pharisees, saying “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” (John 9:1-3, 25, NIV)

Paul also explained that suffering displays God’s glory, even while we’re experiencing it: “Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.” (Philippians 1:12-14, NIV)

Are you willing to pray and ask God to show His glory through your suffering? 

To Experience God’s Power: Suffering strips away anything else we’ve relied on for strength and drives us to God. Paul explains: “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, NIV)

Have you tapped into the sufficiency of God’s grace to strengthen you through your hardships?

Encouragement for Others: Walking faithfully with God through suffering opens us to His blessings and gives hope to others enduring hardship: “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” (James 5:11, NIV)

Have you considered the way your response to suffering could be like Job’s? Like him, we have the opportunity to inspire others and lead them to the God of hope.

If you’re suffering right now, let the words of “King of My Heart” by Bethel Music encourage you today.

  1. J. Mark Terry, “Job’s Friends: Models of Compassion?” quoted from Job: A Story of Unlikely Joy by Lisa Harper, Lifeway Press 2018, p. 56

Breaking the Cycle

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I recently returned from a trip to Disney’s California Resort with my family.   We had a fantastic time together going on rides, watching shows, eating treats and reminiscing about previous trips there.  I love Disneyland, even if it is just the tiniest bit over-stimulating for me.

The only part I don’t like is this little issue I have with motion sickness (and I’m slightly in denial about it).  Posted outside each thrill ride is a very clear warning listing all of the horrible things that could happen to people subjecting themselves to it.  The signs clearly state that motion sickness will be “aggravated” by the rides.  Every time I strapped myself in, I knew what the consequence would be, but I didn’t want to miss out on having fun with my family.

After one ride full of steep climbs, sudden drops, sharp turns and upside down loops, I decided to take a break.  I needed to let my stomach and head find their equilibrium again.  I waved happily from a bench as my husband and kids headed back for another round.  After I’d recovered a few hours later, I got in line with them for yet another roller coaster and walked past yet another warning sign.

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My stomach had finally settled, but I didn’t want to miss out on being with them.  The familiar queasiness returned as soon as we made the first high-speed turn.  At the end of the ride my upset stomach told me it was finished with thrills for the day.  I listened to my body and steered clear of roller coasters after that.

Surprisingly, my little adventure with the roller coasters has a few parallels with Nehemiah chapter 9.  Like me, the Israelites were given clear warnings, but they failed to heed them and doomed themselves to repeat the same “roller coaster ride” for much of their history.  In Nehemiah 9, the Israelites prayed and reviewed the pattern of their people, starting with Abraham.  They recognized the cycle that their ancestors followed from one generation to the next:

1) Receive God’s Blessing and Faithfulness

2) Rebel/ Fall Away / Face Hardship

3) Receive God’s Discipline and Repent

4) Reconcile with God/ Receive God’s Blessing

The people of Nehemiah’s time saw how they continued the cycle and realized God’s faithfulness in spite of their faithlessness.  They confessed to God and sought His help:

“In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly. Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways. But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.”  (Nehemiah 9:33-37)

The people were in “phase three” of their usual cycle and trying to move to “phase four” from my list above.  Sadly, this would not be the last time the pattern would repeat.  Among the many lessons we can learn from the Israelites, two stand out to me.  First, they didn’t deal well with difficulty.  Second, they didn’t remember God in their times of ease.

Dealing with Difficulty

Kelly Minter explains:  “whenever the Israelites faced difficulty in the desert they chose to believe something false about God.  Three of the biggies were that He had abandoned them, withheld from them, or wouldn’t meet their needs.”  (Nehemiah:  A Heart That Can Break p. 125).

Like the Israelites, we can make big mistakes when we view difficulties as unusual or when we expect to be spared from them.  Hard things happen, but God is still good.  In fact, He often uses hardships to refine our faith and draw us closer to Him.  Jesus said it clearly,  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33)

When we have established in our hearts and minds that God is good then the difficulties we face cause us to rely on Him instead of questioning Him.  Similarly, when we believe God is sovereign, we trust Him to handle the injustices we experience.  Even when we don’t understand the trials we face, we know He’ll use them mature us and refine our faith.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  (1 Peter 1:3-9)

“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)

Forgetting God in Times of Ease

Nehemiah 9:35 explains that even when the people were enjoying God’s “great goodness” and the “spacious and fertile land,” they failed to acknowledge Him.

Sometimes it is harder to remember to focus on God when life is easy and things are going well.  We get lulled into thinking that the ease of our circumstances is our “new normal” or that we’ve done something right to deserve it.  We can become complacent, apathetic and spiritually lazy.  Our circumstantial peace should allow us time to study God’s word, grow with Him and serve Him.  Yet sometimes when circumstances are smooth, we tend stray away and give our time and attention to other things.  We take God’s goodness for granted and forget to use His blessings to benefit others and honor Him.

Jesus makes a strong point about this in the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25.  In His story, a wealthy landowner calls his servants to him before leaving on a long journey.  To each he gives a sum of money called a “talent.”   Each one receives an amount “according to his ability.” To the first, he gives five talents, to the second two and to the last, one.

When the landowner returns, he discovers that the first and second servants have invested the talents wisely and have doubled their amounts.   The landowner praises each of them similarly:  “Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master’s happiness.”  (John 25:21).

The third servant has only the original one talent to return to his master.  Instead of investing it, he simply dug a hole and hid it, fearing his master.

“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?  Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.’ “ (Matthew 25:26-29)

The servant given the smallest load to bear failed miserably.  My Bible’s study notes put it this way:  “The talents represent any kind of resource we are given.  God gives us time, gifts, and other resources according to our abilities, and he expects us to invest them wisely until he returns.  We are responsible to use well what God has given us.  The issue is not how much we have, but how well we use what we have.”  (Zondervan Life Application Bible 1991)

When life is going smoothly, it is the time to use our health, wealth, skills, experience, education and spiritual gifts to bless others and honor God.  It is not the time to coast and live a life of ease and comfort, but a time to stretch, grow and help further the Kingdom of God.

Let’s choose not to be like the Israelites, continually cycling through obedience, rebellion, discipline and repentance.    Getting caught in a pattern like that consumes energy without producing growth or maturity.

It’s a bit like my roller coaster experience.  I knew what rides might make me sick, but I went on a few anyway hoping for a different outcome.   I quickly realized that not heeding the posted warnings would ruin my day.   My body was telling me to stop and if I ignored it, I would have been too sick to enjoy the day at all.  I had to break the cycle.  Once I did, my stomach settled and I had a great time instead of muscling through more hours of nausea.

If you find yourself stuck in your own version of “the cycle,” be encouraged.  You are not the only one!  When you’re headed for that roller coaster you know you shouldn’t be riding, pray and ask God to help you step out of line.  Click on the link below to hear Josh Wilson’s song “Know By Now.”  It will remind you of God’s sovereignty, faithfulness and patience with us in spite of our failings.

Swimming Against the Current

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“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

Pushing our paddle surfboards off the wet sand, my husband turned to me, “Which way do you want to go, right or left?”

Studying the ripples on the water in the early morning light I eased onto my board and let the current carry me for a moment before answering decisively, “Let’s go right.  That way we’ll be paddling into the breeze and against the current.  It will make the trip back easier when we’re tired.”

It was hard work as we bent our knees, dug in our paddles and slowly made our way through the harbor.  Every muscle in my body was flexed, poised to keep me firmly balanced standing on the board and skimming through the water.  I had no desire to take a spill and get wet in the early morning chill.

As we rounded the tip of Balboa Island for the return trip, we reaped the benefit of our choice to do the hard part first.  We slipped along with the current, feeling like we had the strength of superheroes.  With each stroke of the paddle we made significant progress and could look up and enjoy the sights and sounds all around us in the Newport Harbor.

Skidding onto the cool, wet sand as we returned, I thought about how often our walks of faith mirror what I’d just experienced out on the water.  Sometimes making choices to lead a godly life feels like a fight to swim against the current of the world around us.  Spending time with people who don’t value the things of God can make following Him with our daily life choices a challenge.  When we feel like we have to go it alone, it can be a lot like I felt paddling against the current and into a head wind.  It’s a grueling effort, but the Bible tells us it’s worth it:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

When we persevere, we grow in numerous ways.  There is probably no faster means for growth than clinging to God in the midst of adversity:  “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 choose to “go with the flow” and let the current sweep us along with the actions and attitudes in popular culture, we’ll find our spiritual disciplines slipping and our infrequent times with God becoming stale and dry.  It is impossible to remain solidly planted in one place spiritually; we will either be swept with the current of the world around or make an effort to paddle against it.

Conversely, there may also be times in life when following God seems easy and fun.  We feel His strength flowing through us as each dip of the paddle into the water propels us forward at an amazing rate.  I liken this to times when we are connected consistently with other Christians and are studying God’s word, worshiping and serving together.  We feel energized and excited as we watch God work among us and are motivated to want more of Him in our lives.

Summer is a season when most organized Bible Studies take a break.  As people scatter for travel or other activities, they tend to put their time in God’s word on the back burner.  It’s still a priority, but not something they tend to with the same diligence.  While rest and rejuvenation are part of God’s desire for our lives, taking a “vacation” from Him or His Word is not.  Many people experience serious spiritual “slippage” in the summer as they focus their attention elsewhere and leave God out of the mix.  Let me encourage you not to be one of those people.

Summer can be a great time to explore a concept that you’ve been wanting to know more about, to read that book that’s been gathering dust on your shelf or to review the study you didn’t have time to savor during the fast pace of the year.  Below are a few ideas to keep you engaged and to help you paddle against the current so that you can continue to build your “spiritual muscles” and experience the rich and full life God has for you, no matter what season it is.

-Pick your favorite Bible Study from the past year and reread it chapter by chapter throughout the summer.  Write down a list of things you want to remember that you learned from it to help you solidify them and apply them to your life.

-Choose a Christian book to read this summer.  Invite a friend to read it with you.  You can even set up a reading schedule to discuss it over coffee or lunch on the weeks you’re both in town.  Here are few suggestions to get you started:

One Thousand Gifts by Ann VosKamp

Seven by Jen Hatmaker

A Confident Heart by Renee Swope

A Different Kind of Wild by Debbie Alsdorf

Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst

 The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg

Strong Women, Soft Hearts by Paula Rhinehart

The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge

Fresh Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson

-Sign up for a Bible Study being offered at church

-Invite a few friends, neighbors or members of your Bible Study to do a workbook and DVD Bible Study together at one of your homes.  If you live near CPC, there are a number that can be checked out from the church library.  If you don’t, look for studies available at lifeway.com or Christianbook.com

-Sign up to receive a daily devotional at Proverbs 31 Ministries www.provberbs31.org (Lysa Ter Keurst started this ministry)

-Choose a book of the Bible to read through this summer.  Write down questions you have as you read and take the time to do word studies and read commentaries that will help you understand it better.  You can also pick up helpful study guides for specific books of the Bible at the CPC bookstore or other Christian bookstores.

The options are only limited by your imagination.  So, pray and ask God to show you what His plans are for you this summer.  Then, dip you paddle in the water and point yourself against the current- you won’t be disappointed.

“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).