Consider it Joy

First things first today... I am a bad blogger.  I don't know what happened... life I guess, but I have taken too long of a hiatus from regular blog writing and blog hopping and I apologize for that.  I've missed our little get-togethers.  How have you been?  Guess when I get to that blog hopping we'll find out huh?!

Hubby is back out on the road today... his 3rd trip in 4 weeks.  I dropped him off at the airport this morning and decided to have a quiet morning with God at home.  I listened to Andy Stanley (Charles Stanley's amazingly gifted preacher son) while I emptied the dishwasher and ate some Raisin Bran (with fresh blueberries).  After that I began my regular quiet time devotional, "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young.  Can I just say... if you don't own this little devotional, get it!  It is amazing.  My sister gave it to me for Christmas and I love it.

After I read the day's encouragement I always try to look up the Scripture references Sarah includes for that day.  It never ceases to amaze me at how amazing God's Word is when we sit with Him during these times.  One of today's passages was James 1:2,3. 

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

I looked up the word "joy" in the dictionary.  Here's what it says:  "Intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness."  Did you catch that... "intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness.  I don't know about you, but in the middle of trials and troubles, ecstatic happiness is not so much on the radar.  Yet, I totally get what James is telling us.

I don't think it's that we're supposed to go "Yippee... my heart is breaking in a million pieces!  Woohoo!!".  What I think he's getting at is verse 3... that in spite of our heart breaking or the troubles crashing in around us, we can be encouraged... dare I say "happy" that our faith is being tested and we can (and in many cases do) endure and come out the other side stronger as people and in our relationship with God.

 This has been one of those verses that I have had to wrestle through in my walk with God.  In the darkest days of infertility grief the thought of considering it an "opportunity for great joy" was so foreign to me.  Yet, on the other side of it, I can see that the perseverance and faith development throughout is great cause for "ecstatic happiness".  God IS Good and the trials and troubles we endure are not to send us whimpering into the ground, crying "Uncle" while we wait for God to move on to someone else.  They are meant to draw us deeper into the shelter of His Wings and to give us wings so that we can soar like the eagle.

I don't know about you, but I want to soar.  The next time troubles come my way I want to dig back into my bag of memories of God's faithfulness to me in the past, and to turn that frown upside down and consider it a joy and privilege that God wants to take my faith to the next level.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for troubles.  No thank you Lord!  But, trials and troubles are inevitable, and I want to choose today to be victorious when they hit!  How 'bout you?