Profiting from Trials

Introduction

What would it be like if you truly lacked nothing?

Charis: healthy, whole, and lackin’ nothin’

We have been talking about being re:formed and experiencing the abundant life (John 10:10)

We’ve been given every spiritual blessing:

Ephesians 1:3 NLT

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

We’ve also been given everything that pertains to life:

2 Peter 1:3 NLT

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

Yet why do we feel most of the time we we lack the things we know we’ve been given?

Tension/Truth

James 1:2–4 (NASB95)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, 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.

James 1:12 NASB95

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

CONSIDER IT ALL JOY? When we encounter trials? That’s next level.

But what did it say after that? LET IT RUN IT’S COURSE…

Don’t try to STOP the very thing that God is trying to use to SHAPE you into perfection.

We have an ESCAPISM mentality: we want God to rescue us out of everything that comes our way that we see as bad.

A big part of our problem is that we lean too much our our own perception and ability to know what is good and what is evil.

Original sin: eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man used to rely totally on God to decide what is good and what is evil. Now we have our knowledge of good and evil…but we can’t see what He sees.