Growing Pains

Introduction

I was thinking about storms recently. It’s always funny to me to watch how different people react to storms. Some people, as soon as the warning comes, the alert on your phone—doesn’t matter if there’s a siren or not, if the word “tornado” is even mentioned, they’re in the basement or the bathtub or wherever they’re supposed to be in a storm, even if it’s in the middle of the night.

Other people are more like me. I’ve got a little redneck in me, and so if I hear something about a tornado, if I’m awake, I’m gonna be outside looking for it.

“It doesn’t feel like a tornado out here,” or “Yeah, it definitely smells like a tornado out here.” Like I’m some combination of Sacagawea and Jim Jaggers. I don’t know, it’s a dad thing, I guess.

Different people react to storms in different ways. The same is true in life. As, believers a lot of things ought to set us apart from people who aren’t followers of Jesus—our morality, the way we treat people—things like that. But one of the biggest things that should distinguish us, as believers, as followers of Jesus, from the rest of the world is how we respond to uncertainty—how we react when life’s weather radio sounds.

As we stand here on the horizon of another year, we can be as optimistic as we want to be about what we want to accomplish, what we’d like to see happen, but the truth is, nobody knows what this year will bring. This might be your best year yet. Could be the year that you get married, the year you have children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren, the year you pay off all your debt and find financial freedom. Could be the year you retire and discover a whole different kind of freedom.

I want that for you. I want that kind of year for you, but of course, it could go differently. A medical diagnosis could knock the wind out of your sails. A financial loss could derail your plans, delay your retirement. That vision of marriage may dissolve with a breakup, or worse, your marriage may end in distance, divorce, or even death. I hope not. I pray not. But some things are beyond our control. Truth is, we really just don’t know what this year will bring. We don’t know what storms will come our way.

And that not knowing tends to drive us toward self-centeredness. It's a self-protection thing. When life is uncertain, most people worry about themselves. That’s what most people are doing right now, facing down this new year.

“I’m gonna control what I can control.” I’m gonna set the these goals, do these things to secure what I can in case the storms come.” Maybe that’s where you are today. “I don't know what the future holds, so I'm just going to dig in. I'm going to try harder. I'm going to get busy. I'm going to take control.”

Listen, if that's you, here's my word to you. Before you dig in, before you try harder, before you get crazy busy, before you go about trying to take control, before you do any of that...seek. Seek God.

The reason I say that is, because, too often, especially when there's uncertainty ahead, seeking God is an afterthought. We get so busy, so preoccupied with our own agenda that we don't find ourselves in God's Word. And our prayer life...when we finally take time to pray, our prayers sound like a shopping list.

"Provide this, bless that, give me this, make sure this or that happens for me." We become so focused on our needs, our desires, our problems, that we lose sight of the big picture. We lose sight of what life is really all about.

Because what life is really about...is God. Period. It’s all about Him. Not just in 2025. It’s always about Him--always has been, always will be. No matter what happens this year, it’s all about Him--His glory, His honor and His praise. Period.

So, the question we have to ask, as His people, is how do we remember that even when the storms of life threaten? Instead of withdrawing from God and pushing our own agenda when life gets hard, how can trials bring us closer to God.

That’s what I want us to think together about this morning in this first message in a new series from the New Testament book of James. The title of this six-week series is “New Year, Fresh Faith,” and the goal is to start this year by intentionally renewing our faith. Imagine next Christmas, reflecting back over 2025 with deep, deep gratitude because you feel closer to God, more in love with God than you’ve ever felt in your life. And it started right here as you intentionally took steps to renew your faith in Him.

The title of this morning’s message is “Growing Pains,” and what we’re working on is, instead of trying to take control when the storms of life happen, embracing trials as opportunities for spiritual growth.

And to do that, we’re going to look together at James 1:4-8, that passage that we read together earlier. Before we dive in here, just a little bit about James. James is written, of course, by James—specifically James, the half brother of Jesus who was saved after the resurrection and rose to become leader of the Church in Jerusalem.

According to verse 1 of chapter 1, James is writing this letter to Jewish believers dispersed throughout the Roman Empire to instruct them and encourage them in the face of persecution. As we’ll see, it’s an extremely practical book in terms of what it looks like to live a life of faith.

And, again, what we see here is that part of walking in faith is allowing trials and uncertainty—the storms of life—to grow your faith, bringing you closer to God.

Let’s dig in here, James 1:2-4:

James 1:2–4 NASB 2020

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

ALL joy. James tells his readers, who, remember, are facing significant persecution, to “count it all joy” when they suffer. ALL joy. That means not a shade of any other feeling that’s NOT joy.

For most people, that just doesn’t make sense. You ask most people about how to have joy in life and they’ll start telling you about their circumstances.

“Life would be better if I could find a job, if my health would improve, if my kids would behave, if I wasn’t so lonely.”

Life would be better, I could have joy, IF…

But James doesn’t take that approach. James doesn’t say, “Count it all joy when your trials are resolved.” He says, “Count it all joy when you experience trials…knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”

Endurance.

What he’s saying is that to to grow in your faith, to find joy in suffering instead of fear, instead of worry and anxiety, to find joy in the trials that will inevitably come in 2025, you have to…

Look past your discomfort.

To be different, Christian—remember, this message is for people who follow Jesus—to react differently to trials, you have to think differently about trials. Most people who haven’t received the gift of salvation or even Christians who aren’t walking in the power of the Holy Spirit think about life’s challenges strictly in terms of their own comfort.

If they think about God at all, their only question is, “Why is God doing this to me? If God cares about me, why does He allow me to suffer?” And look, I get it! I’ve been there. I’ve wrestled with that question, and many of you have endured much more than I have. And it’s okay to ask that question. It’s good, in fact, to cry out to God in your pain, to question God in your pain.

But even if you never understand the reason, you can still have joy when, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you learn to look past your discomfort to the other side of it toward the endurance that it will produce.

As some of you know, I’ve been a little bit of an endurance athlete. I don’t do as much as I used to, but I still like to run a few times a week. Actually, that’s not true. I don’t really like to run. In fact, I’ve never really LIKED to run, even when I was running 25-30 miles a week. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found myself slogging up a hill in the ridiculous Mid-South summer heat asking myself, “Why do I do this again?”

And the truth is, that’s most runners. Sure, there are a few crazy people out there who thoroughly enjoy every step of a run. But most of us run, or bike, or exercise in some other way, not because of how we feel in the middle of it, but because of how we feel after. Because of the strength that we feel, the endurance that we feel.

That’s how we should learn to handle trials. Amid the grief of a painful loss, the anguish of a devastating illness, the sting of betrayal or whatever other trial you face this year, you can rejoice, not because you enjoy pain, but because in it, you know that God is making you stronger.

He is shaping you into who He wants you to be.

And again, I’ve seen this so clearly in many of you. And you’ve told me, those of you who have been through things that I can’t even imagine, you’ve told me that, though it was the hardest thing you’ve ever had to endure, you wouldn’t change a thing, because of how God met you there and how you discovered, not your strength, but His.

Learn to look past your discomfort for glory of God. That’s the first key to growth, the first habit that I would encourage you to adopt in 2025.

But I’ll just tell you, it’s not easy. Learning to see your trials from God’s perspective is not easy at all. The truth is, you can’t do it in your own strength. So, the question is, “How do we get there?” James helps us here as well. Check out verse 5:

James 1:5 NASB 2020

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Wisdom. That’s really what seeing beyond your immediate comfort is, seeing beyond your immediate experience. Wisdom is more than knowledge. You can retain all that there is to know and still be foolish, still make foolish choices.

As my buddy Barry Jordan told me once, “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.”

James says that if you lack wisdom—if you have the self-awareness to KNOW that you lack wisdom—here is a solution. Ask for it. Ask the author of wisdom to give you the wisdom to see your trials as He sees them.

And that brings us to another key to spiritual growth through suffering, through trials. Look past your discomfort, and second…

Ask God for wisdom.

James says that God gives wisdom “to all generously and without reproach.” In other words, God LOVES to grant wisdom to His children who ask for it

We see that back in the Old Testament in the example of Solomon. Remember King Solomon, David’s Son? God told him to ask for anything, and God would grant it to him. Solomon, of course, could have asked for anything—riches, unbridled power, a long life, death for his enemies. Instead, knowing the intimidating task before him, he asked for wisdom. Look at how God answered (1 Kings 3:10-13)

1 Kings 3:10–13 NASB 2020

Now it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself a long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.

I remind you of that story, because I want you to see the heart of God in this. Because here’s the thing. As close as Solomon was to God as the king of Israel, God’s Chosen People, you—if you have trusted Jesus as your savior—you are infinitely closer, because you have the Spirit of God within you. You have the Spirit of Wisdom with in you, the Holy Spirit!

So, when you ask for it, God is overjoyed to break open the dam of your self-sufficiency to flood you with His wisdom. So, just do that! When you feel stuck in your burdens, ask God for His wisdom, and He will be generous with it.

Look at the rest of the passage with me. Pick up in verse 6:

James 1:6–8 NASB 2020

But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

As generous as God is when we come to Him, asking for wisdom, we do need to ask the right way. James says that when we ask, we ask with faith, trusting God to give us what we need, not what we THINK we need.

That’s what James means by “doubting.” When we doubt the nature of God, because when we insist that God work in a certain way or answer in a certain way, that’s what we’re doing. We’re doubting His perfection, His care, His goodness and justice, and we’re putting ourselves in His place.

When we do that, we’re being tossed around like a sea vessel tossed by the wind. We’re everywhere, chaotically driven by whatever we feel in the moment. We’re “double-minded,” James says, pushed back and forth between trusting in ourselves and trusting in God.

James’s word to us if he could be here before us today would simply be, “Stop.” Stop trying to figure it out. Stop trying to solve it yourself. stop wavering between your own self-sufficiency and your need for God.

Rest in Him…

Rest in single-minded trust.

That’s the third key to growth in whatever trials you face this year. Look past your discomfort. Ask God for wisdom and just rest. Rest in single-minded trust, trust in His generosity, in His strength, in His ability and willingness to bring you through, if that’s what you really need. Trust in His work, even if you don’t understand exactly what He’s doing.

Trust Him.

You can trust Him, you know. Whatever uncertainty you feel at the start of this year, you can trust God to do what only He can do—grow you into the man, woman, teenager, child that He created you to be.

As we close, let me give you some practical ways to do this, practical ways to look past your discomfort, ask God for wisdom, and rest in sing-minded trust.

First, take a moment to think about how your challenges are shaping your character. How is your faith growing through what your going through today?

Second, make it a daily habit to ask God for wisdom in every situation. Any time you have a question or someone comes to your for advice, ask the Lord to help you not to answer according to your own wisdom, but His.

Third, work to know God more so you can experience His goodness and learn to trust Him. Study His Word. Pray regularly. Connect with other believers who will encourage you.

And then, finally, if you haven’t already, surrender your life to Jesus today. As I said before, this passage is written to Christians. It’s out of a relationship with God that we apply these principles. These are habits that you built, not SO THAT God will love you, but BECAUSE God loves you as His child. Apart from Jesus, trials will never make sense. They’re just random unfortunate events in a random universe. But when you know Him, you discover that nothing is random. It’s all an invitation to know Him, to belong to Him, to trust Him…

In faith.

Will you have the faith to trust Jesus today?