Thankfulness: Struggles
Notes
Transcript
As we continue our theme of thankfulness, last week we discussed being thankful for our families and restoring relationships. This week we will take a minute to reflect on our lives and to be thankful for our struggles. That sounds like an odd thing to say that we should be thankful for our struggles. If you are like me you do your best to look the other way from your struggles and to avoid remembering them. The struggles in our lives are the ares of our deepest pain, worst choices. if you are like me the times of your struggles find you in the places where your relationships are the worst, the person you were is no the person you want to remember. Our struggles though are the greatest moments of learning.
When I take a moment to look back on the areas of my struggles I often times say well how could you have been so stupid, How could I have been so weak. The fact though is that we need to look back and view those moments so that we can see that we serve a powerful God who can make much of our struggles and failures.
As I think back to being a student I remember how much I struggled with math. Math just was not my subject. I had a tutor one time that literally walked out they got so frustrated at my inability to do math. It was something where I could start to get the basics then I would second guess myself and would get to the point where I could not remember the process. You know what I am talking about? Please excuse my dear aunt sally would turn into Excuse me Sally my Aunt is a deer. Now I know what you are all expecting. Ryan worked though his struggles and he found that he is able to do math and those struggles led him to being better at math. Not at all. I am still horrible at math. I have not given up but what I have learned is that there are ways around things you are bad at. Calculators, computers, excel, Google. The struggle though taught me not to give up even at things that I might never be good at. Keep trying even if I will never be a mathematician.
When I hear my friends say they hope their children don't have to experience the hardships they went through--I don't agree. Those hardships made us what we are. You can be disadvantaged in many ways, and one way may be not having had to struggle.- William Batten fortune magazine.
Struggles are the areas in our lives that help us to grow. As we take time today to reflect on the struggles in our lives we will turn to the Scriptures to help us put on the lens of the Spirit to see the struggles and how God uses them in our lives. This morning we will be in James 1:1-4 and in these Scriptures we will see that Struggles are Universal. Second Struggles should be remembered. Third we will see that our Struggles lead to strength.
Read the scriptures with me this morning and we will get into the Word this morning as we reflect on our struggles in life.
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Struggles are Universal
Struggles are Universal
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
Often times when this message is preached this verse is quickly overlooked and people move right past it. The fact though is that this verse has significant information that we would otherwise look over. When James write this letter he is writing as a Jew to other Jews. When he writes the phrase “To the twelve tribes in Dispersion” James is giving us a great look into the people he is writing to. The Jews that James is writing to are people who have faces struggles in their lives. James is opening the history book up and reminding the Jews of their Exiles. Jews though have not faced one exile, one struggle and hardship but many. In the 8th century they were exiled by the Babylonians. In the 6th century they were exiled by the Assyrians. The Jews experienced many years of slavery and being spread out from their homeland and moved from place to place. They saw their home land captured by enemy forces and their people slaughtered. James is writing to people who understand what struggles are. James opens this letter by letting the people he is writing to know that he understands that they have experienced struggles. When James writes in verse 2 he is not writing to people who may have experiences struggles but who have in fact experienced not just one struggle but many struggles. James is showing us in this scripture that struggles are universal. There are no humans created that will not face struggles and James is telling us that when he gets to verse 2 he is not writing as one who is ignorant of our struggles. As we begin to reflect on our struggles to give God His praise through our struggles we must understand that we all face struggles. You will face struggles and I will face struggles. First I want to say this is not how we were originally designed. We were not designed to face struggles we were designed for a relationship with God and were designed to live life without sin. We welcomed sin into the human creation and because of that we will all struggle. In a sense because we are human in a fallen state we are now designed to struggle. This though was not the original design.
You remember the story of the little boy who was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it.
The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat. One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.
The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out. At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned.
The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress! The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, and then walked back (because he had learned not to run with scissors…). He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged! As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly’s wings would expand.
But nothing happened. The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never had the chance to be what it was designed to be. It never was able to fly. As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong he learned later on that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy’s good intentions hurt the butterfly—our good intentions can do the very same thing to us, when we decide to work on our time instead of God’s time.
We will all face struggles in our lives and those struggles are meant to bring us to a place of growing. The scriptures tell us that we will face struggles.
10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
We do not need to fear when we face struggles we need to understand that God is with us and will strengthen us
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
If God works things for good what would He need to work for good if we were not in struggles.
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Struggles are universal and James this morning is writing to people who have experienced struggle. We all try to make things look as good as we can and I am no stranger to this. The fact though is that we all struggle and deal with things that are difficult for us. Struggles are not only Universal but Struggles should be remembered.
Struggles should be remembered
Struggles should be remembered
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
James is telling the reader here to count their struggles as joyous things. In most cases we look at this scripture and we say that in my upcoming trials I need to count whatever I am going through as a joyous moment. The thing though when we are reading scripture is that we need to remember that what is written before a verse matters James is in a sense writing about future events but because of what James wrote before this i more of a reflection. James is saying that as we reflect on the struggles that we have experienced we need to consider them as pure joy. The English language as we have all talked does not always give us the greatest understanding of a scripture and this is one of those moments. As you get into the Greek and you study the structure of this letter. James is saying that when you look back you need to consider the things you have gone through with pure joy. Be joyous when you see the many struggles you have gone through. This is difficult like we have talked about because the times we have struggled are times that we do not want to remember. I do not like to look back on my struggles because it brings about some painful memories for me. How about you do you like to look back on your struggles? I think the reason that we don’t is because we are looking at the wrong aspect of our struggles. Instead of looking at the struggle and the mistakes, we must look to what God did for us in those times and how we have come out on the other side. We serve a God who is good and we need to ensure that we are reflecting on our struggles in view of who God is in those moments. Struggles should be remembered not to revel in the old days and to remind us of our sins but to remind us of how great our God is.
When I was a kid I did not know that my family didn't have much money. I remember my mother making things fun and finding ways for us to go on trips and do things. I remember my father working and being very dedicated to going to work and doing his job. I cant tell you that I didn’t know that there were times of struggle and times that I choose not to think about in my life. When I do think about those times of struggle though I do not think about what we went through I think about how much my parents did to try and help me and my brothers have normal lives in spite of the hard times. I remember how good my parents were to my brothers and I. I remember how much they sacrificed for us to enjoy life. As a kid I didn’t understand and often times was not grateful for those moments
Reflecting on our struggles brings us to a place of remembering how great of a God we serve. The Scriptures remind us of how Great our God is.
68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Our struggles are to be remembered so that we can remember how Great our God is. These struggles are not about remembering the pain but about remembering a God who comes through and provides a way out of the struggles. First we must understand that Struggles are Universal. Second Struggles should be remembered. Lastly Struggles lead to strength.
Struggles lead to strength
Struggles lead to strength
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
When we reflect back on our struggles it leads us to a placed of remembering how great our God is. The more we understand and remember how great our God is the less difficult it is for us to trust Him. Our struggle lead us to a place of understanding that our God will never fail us. This is a great proclamation of His strength but it also makes us strong. When we believe in our God and we trust in Him and we take His word seriously. When we reflect back on those painful moments in life and we see His provisions it leads us to a place of trusting in Him more. As we move forward in life we are strengthened because of what He has done and can do for us. Our struggles show of our Fathers strength and the more we lean into His strength the more we trust Him the more we trust Him the more power we gain to overcome the flesh and overcome struggles with His power. James is writing to remind the Jews of their past struggles and how God has always rescued them. He is reminding them of the power of God to get them through any struggle in their life. Being thankful for the struggles in our lives is being thankful for the God who got us through.
I really enjoy going to the gym. Obviously I have not been in some time and that needs to change but I do enjoy it. When I go to the gym and I lift weights I tear muscle. As you work out muscle groups you are literally tearing the muscles and then your body comes back and repairs them and builds them stronger. I hate the second day of chest because on the second day I can never lift heavy weights. The second day of the week that I do chest I am reminded how much I have torn my muscles. The good thing though is that after a good couple days rest my muscles are recovered and rebuilt and ready to lift again and I am able to often times lift more than I did the time before. Struggles are the same way in our lives. As we are torn down and God repairs us and rescues us we are strengthened for the next set of struggles in our lives.
The scriptures tell us about how we are strengthened in our struggles in life.
9 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
We serve a God who strengthens us through our struggles. Are you thankful this morning for your struggles. This season of Thanksgiving we need to remember what God has done for us and we should take time to be thankful for the struggles we have faced. I want to take more time to reflect on the times of struggle in my life and praise my God who not only got me through those times but strengthened me on the other side of them.
