It's Only A Test

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

James 1:2-4  


It’s been well said, “it’s not what happens us that matters most. It’s how we respond to what happens to us that matters most.” Every day we are confronted with learning how to count it all joy when we fall into various trials as every day provides plenty to test us. Trials aren’t something you can plan for, as much as they are something we must respond. To fall into a trial implies a lack of control over the circumstances but not the response. We can’t keep the trials from coming but we can learn how to handle them each time we encounter one. Our response is God’s goal for allowing the trail.

I read an article about the military in the 1950’s and how in basic training they taught soldiers how to swim. They took the entire platoon to the pool and told them to jump in. The soldiers who could swim immediately jumped in and the ones who couldn’t were pushed in by their commanding officers, some soldiers screaming for their lives in fear. Most of the soldiers took to water like a duck to a pond and the ones who couldn’t swim were flailing their arms and crying for help. The commanding officers yelling through bullhorns instructed the troops to either swim (if they knew how, or to stand up if they couldn’t.) It turned out that the water was only 5 feet deep making it possible to stand up if you couldn’t swim. It was a test, a trial not so much about swimming but about how a soldier responds to adversity. You can learn a lot about a person by how they handle stress.

1 Peter 1:6-7 reminds us, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I confess I am not patient but I do understand that every trial you and I face are simply the instruments God uses to proctor our test to teach us patience.

Remember, loved one, trials are things we fall into. We don’t plan to fall into them, and they do little to teach us but do much to expose what’s already in us. Trials have a unique way of revealing our heart and our attitudes. If we believe God is in the trial we would be a lot more patient enduring it and much more observant as to the lessons He is seeking to teach us along the way. We already know the end result of the trial itself as James answers that for us. God is allowing trials in our lives with the hope that we would allow patience to have its perfect work in us, not to conform us but rather to transform us, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Trials aren’t an enemy to avoid but are part of God’s sanctifying work in our lives that serve to set us free from ourselves so that we can enjoy God more. So, be ready today as more trials are forthcoming for sure and the best way we can prepare for them is to stay ready by walking closely with God in His Word and in prayer keeping the apostle Paul’s words in mind…


“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Galatians 5:25

I LOVE YOU!