Pastor’s Corner: “FINDING THE PEARLS”
James 1:2-3 – Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Did you know that oysters can have problems? Those little hard-shelled creatures can often get a foreign substance inside their shell that causes irritation and distress. What do they do with this problem? They secrete a chemical to address the irritant… and voila, the end result is a valuable, costly pearl. Pretty cool! But this does not happen overnight.
GOT PROBLEMS? No one likes to have problems and troubles… but we all have them. They are part of the human existence. The Old Testament character, Job, had more than his fair share of difficulties in life. He said, “Man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). As with the oyster, God wants to take the troubles we have and use them for good. He wants to turn our problems into pearls. He wants us to look at problems differently… so that we can see the benefits and truly “count it all joy.”
Problems create an environment for God’s grace to flow. Problems create and environment for your faith to be strengthened. Faith is the key that unlocks the storehouse of heaven. Faith is what pleases God. The stronger your faith, the more you will see God do in your life. And faith really only grows when it is tested by trouble. Faith is like a muscle… if there is no resistance on it, it stays flabby and weak. It takes stress and strain to make it strong.
James tells us that we need to consider our problems as all joy (pure and unmixed with grief and grumbling). Surely all problems are not all joy – cancer is not a joy, job loss is not a joy, rejection is not a joy, opposition is not a joy, hardship is not a joy – but we are to CONSIDER problems a joy. We are to say by faith, “God, You who love me have allowed this situation to come into my life… and I know You are going to use it for good somehow (Rom. 8:28)… and I choose to trust You and look at this with anticipation and excitement. That is faith. That attitude pleases God.
When it comes to problems, you and I always have a choice to make: “Will I allow this problem to make me bitter… or make me better? Will I focus on the pearls or the poison?” There are pearls in your problems. Stay focused on Jesus and draw near to Him in your problems. You will be amazed at what God can do with your pain, struggles and problems. LOOK FOR THE PEARLS!
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton