Welcome knights! I pray that you are having a wonderful day of celebrating all the King has done for us. Welcome to all our new brothers that are reading this. It is my prayer that you will be richly blessed by our King and Savior.
As we battle our way to the kingdom of God, I am sure you ask yourself a reoccurring question. I know I find myself asking it, sometimes more that once in a day. Why am I facing this battle? Where did this trial come from? Sometimes it seems like we are in a trial or test that doesn’t seem like it has any purpose what so ever except to exasperate us and weaken us. Why would God let me go through this? Today we will see what the King’s word has to say about these trials.
Our fellow knight, James “The Just”, the earthly brother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, wrote a letter to the early Jewish churches. These believers knew what persecution, tests and trials were all about. Not only had they been kicked out of their Jewish gatherings due to believing in Christ, but they did not even have a place to meet openly so they would hold their meetings in one of the member’s houses. James himself was executed for his beliefs in A.D. 62. James starts his letter to these home churches this way.
James 1:2-4 “2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”(NLT). Whoa, whoa, whoa James. Joy out of trouble? He must be mistaken right? You see knights, James knew that when troubles come it stretches and strengthens our faith. We can have joy even in hard times because we know that it is accomplishing something. It is helping us grow. Grow in faith, grow in endurance and grow closer to the King because that is when we rely on Him the most.
In 1 Peter 1:6-7, Peter gives us even more insight into this joy during trials and testing. “6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (NLT) To increase the value of gold they need to melt it down with extreme heat to get the impurities out. God does the same thing with us. Each trial we go through makes the impurities in us rise to the top so God can skim them off and make us stronger and more valuable with each testing. God is so good, He doesn’t want us to just be okay, He wants us to be perfect so we will not miss out on any of the praise, glory or honor that He wants to give us when He comes back for us.
You may be saying, “okay so our faith is strengthened when we go through trials and learn to trust in God, but what is the final outcome of all these trials?” I am glad you asked that. Look back at James 1:4. “4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”(NLT) God wants you to be in a state of perfect satisfaction where you have no more need. Also take a look at 1 John 5:4-5 “4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” (NLT) The ESV version puts it like this “4For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world---our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Romans 8:37 tells us “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Knights look to your King and see that he has not left you alone, going through needless trials and testings. He is using everything you go through to strengthen you so in the end we will be more than conquerors, in need of nothing.
“Great King, I come to you today and lift up your Holy name. I lift up your knights to you Lord and ask that you allow their spiritual eyes to be opened so they can see the faith you have put in them, grow with every trial and battle they go through. Search each of us Father and melt us like gold so the impurities can be taken away and we can become even more valuable to you and your kingdom. Thank you King for having a plan for each one of us, and thank you for making us more than conquerors.”
Go forth knights. No matter what trial comes your way, stand firm for the King!!
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