“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.“–James 1:2-4

Trials are not given to make us weak, but to make us learn to wait.  Jesus Christ wants to develop our faith, and He rarely develops it in the normal circumstances of life. It is most often  through the interruptions, the heartbreaks, and the discouragements that our faith progresses.

A young black girl living in the poverty section of Philadelphia enjoyed singing in her Union Baptist Church choir. The adults noticed latent talent in her voice and began “The Fund for Marian Anderson’s Future.” They raised one hundred twenty-six dollars in pennies, nickels, and dimes, and she began taking singing lessons.

When she was eighteen she auditioned with a famous instructor, but was rejected. Those who continued to believe in her planned a concert in a town hall in New York City. However, the critics were brutal in their reviews. While on a European concert tour, she was well-received, but in Washington, D.C., she was not allowed to sing in Constitution Hall because of her race.

For many years, Marian Anderson wallowed in self-pity. Her mother finally said, “Marian, I want you to think about your troubles and your failures a little—and pray a lot.” Then her mother said something that Marian never forgot: “Marian, you must learn that grace comes before greatness.”

Marian Anderson became a well-known opera singer, performing for the Eisenhowers and their guests in the White House, being appointed a delegate to the United Nations, and winning a Medal of Freedom. All of this came only after learning the valuable lesson that her mother had taught her.

This is the same lesson delivered throughout Scripture. Learning to fail, yet to persevere, comes as we learn to live a life of faith. Times of trial are not only necessary to teach us humility, but they remind us where our true possessions lie—in Christ.

What better example than Christ—the Model—who shows us that grace comes before greatness . . . humility before honor.

Take time to do the unthinkable: thank God for something painful in your life, whether a broken relationship, the death of a loved one, a failing grade, an illness, or a difficult circumstance. Pray that God will give you strength to persevere during the test, no matter how long it takes—even a lifetime. Remember that trials are given for your good, and even the painful times are a gift from God.–Stephen Davey

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”–Luke 10:33-34

Now we must not conclude that the half-heathen Samaritans were better as a class than the highly-favoured Jews. Our Lord uses a Samaritan in His parable because He wants to impress the law of love. No matter who the sufferer is that we come upon in any of life’s paths, he is our neighbour. He may be a very worthless sort of man; but no matter, he is our neighbour. As we look closely at him, we may see that he is an enemy. Once he did us a bitter, cruel wrong, and he has no claim whatever on us for sympathy or for help; but no matter, he is our neighbour. The person of the human race that we find suffering or in need of any kind becomes for the time our neighbour, — the one neighbour to whom for the present we owe love.

There is more definition here: we learn what the word “love” means. You say, “I can’t love hateful people; I can’t love criminals; I can’t love a poor tramp.” Nobody expects you to love such people as you love your wife, your child, your friend. It is not likely that this Samaritan had a tender affection for this wounded Jew while he was helping him. Samaritans were not in the habit of loving Jews very deeply. But he did not look at the man and calculate whether he loved him or not before he began to attend to his wounds. Yet he loved him precisely as the commandment meant he should love him. His love was not a warm emotion; it was a very practical affection.

First it was pity: he had compassion on him. But pity is sometimes a very useless emotion, — merely a tear that comes easily, and costs nothing. This good wayfarer had more than a tear. His pity got into his hands and into his pocket. He went to the man and bound up his wounds and helped him to an inn, and gave attention to him until he was restored.–J. R. Miller

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,” 1 Corinthians 13:4

The ideal Christian life, is one of unbroken kindliness. It is dominated by love—the love whose portrait is drawn for us in the immortal thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. We have but to turn to the gospel pages, to find the story of a Life in which all this was realized. Jesus never lost his temper. He lived among people who tried Him at every point—some by their dullness, others by their bitter enmity and persecution, but He never failed in sweetness of disposition, in long-suffering patience, in self-denying love. Like the flowers which give out their perfume only when crushed, like the odoriferous wood which bathes with fragrance the ax which hews it—the life of Christ yielded only the tenderer, sweeter love to the rough impact of men’s rudeness and wrong. That is the pattern on which we should strive to fashion our life and our character. Every outbreak of violent temper, every shade of ugliness in disposition, mars the radiant loveliness of the picture we are seeking to have fashioned in our lives.

The perfect beauty of Christ, should ever be envisioned in our hearts, as that which we would attain for ourselves. The honor of our Master’s name, should impel us to strive ever toward Christlikeness in spirit and in disposition.

We represent Christ in this world; people cannot see Him, and they must look at us to see a little of what He is like. Whatever great work we may do for Christ, if we fail to live out His life of patience and kindness, we fail in an essential part of our duty as Christians. “The servant of the Lord must be gentle.” Only as our own lives shine in the brightness of holy affectionateness, and our hearts and lips distill the sweetness of patience and gentleness, can we fulfill our mission in this world as Christ’s true messengers to men.

Life is too short to spend even one day of it in bickering and strife. Love is too sacred to be forever lacerated and torn by the ugly briers of sharp temper. Surely we ought to learn to be patient with others, since God has to show every day such infinite patience toward us. Can we not, then, train our life to sweeter gentleness? Can we not learn to be touched even a little roughly, without resenting it? Can we not bear little injuries and apparent injustices, without flying into an unseemly rage? Can we not have in us something of the mind of Christ which will enable us, like Him—to endure all wrong and injury and give back no word or look of bitterness?

There is no temper so obdurately bad—that it cannot be trained into sweetness. The grace of God can take the most unlovely life—and transform it into the image of Christ!–J. R. Miller

Thou art good, and doest good– Psalm 119:68

God is good. He is not just partially good, or occasionally good, but He is goodness itself.

As John reminds us, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). God’s perfect character does not have even the slightest shade of imperfection or sinfulness about it. He is so good that His own character is the standard by which He will righteously judge the world.

His goodness is not merely an internal attribute, however. God is good and so He does good! When He created the world, he made it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). And even now the sin-cursed earth benefits daily from the sheer goodness of God to send the rain and sun and food that we need.

God is working all things together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28), and the sanctifying work He performs in us by His Spirit is “according to his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

So, what should our response be, as creatures of such a good God? The psalmist justifiably cries, “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness!” (Psalms 107:8). Our worship and devotion are the only reasonable response to the purity and goodness of our God.

Not only that, but we should also pray to God, as the psalmist, “Thou art good, and does good; teach me thy statutes” (Psalms 119:68). If you truly admire the goodness of God, you will wish to learn and emulate His ways in your own life.(Baptist Bible Hour)

We can’t judge God’s love based on how we feel. There will be times during the course of life when it appears God doesn’t care. We might even feel that He has become our enemy. We hurt, we cry, we plead, and nothing changes. Yet God loves us in our pain just as much as in our pleasure. His love never changes! James Smith reminded his church of this in 1840 when he wrote: