Consider it Pure Joy

The number of people whom I know and love across this planet all seem to have something in common these days. For one reason or another, we all seem to be suffering and enduring some kind of test. Do you sense that too? I suppose we should not be surprised. Jesus gave us so many clues about the end times and the trials that believers would endure. I know there have always been trials and suffering; but one thing stands out to me as unusual in this present day. It seems like we can pray and pray, day after day, night after night, and there is no answer forthcoming.  "Does our God still hear us?" we wonder. "We are praying and believing by faith," some have told me, "but nothing happens."

I've given this many hours and days of thought. I've pondered the questions in my heart, even in regard to my own trials and challenges. And as I've sought the Lord about His seeming silence or what may appear as refusal to respond to our prayers, I think He's been showing me the answer.  We think "nothing's happening," but from HIS perspective, a LOT is happening! Allow me to share with you what He's teaching me. 

In James 1:2-4 it says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." 

Yes, I know that's a very familiar verse (I even put it to music!) But don't stop reading here. Don't just pass it off as if to say, "Yes, I know he wants me to learn patience and perseverance. OK, I get it." No, I think it's much deeper than that. I think we are entering a period of time right now that Jesus referred to as "birth pains"; a time just prior to the years of horrific tribulation, such as the world has never known. And as believers, we are exhorted to be OVERCOMERS TO THE END. So that doesn't mean the end of this year or the end of this season, that means THE END, when our Messiah Yeshua returns for His pure, spotless bride. That means overcoming GREAT TRIALS, such as we cannot now imagine. And how will we prepare for THOSE days? How will we develop perseverance strong enough to endure persecution such as the believers in the early Church? How do we prepare our minds and bodies to run a marathon? WE TRAIN! Yes, the writer of the book of Hebrews exhorts us, "...let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

There's that word perseverance again! I have come to truly believe in my heart that God has marked out for each and every one of His children a race to run. It's a race to the FINISH LINE. And the only way to run this race and overcome all its obstacles is to PERSEVERE THROUGH TRIALS, CHALLENGES, DISAPPOINTMENTS, HEARTACHE, SICKNESS, AND SUFFEREING. If all our trials and suffering were to be removed from us immediately, how would we train? How would we learn to press on and be overcomers? 

Sometimes I wonder if it's mostly us Americans that have trouble with this idea. We are so incredibly soft and spoiled, so used to our many comforts and luxuries, and even our easy access to all the best health care. How will WE let perseverance finish its work so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything?

On October 20, 2024 Glynda Lomax posted a word she had received from the Lord and she titled it "IMMENSE TRAINING AHEAD."  Here is what she heard in the Spirit:
My Children, the spiritual battles ahead of you are like nothing you have ever trained for before. The conditions you will fight in will be unlike any before them. You must train far more intensely now.
   As I lead you into some of your training, you will not understand what is happening or why, but the end (result) will justify what you have walked through. You must trust Me fully at all times in order to gain all the wisdom I desire you to gain from these experiences.

This word deeply resonates within me, my friends!  You know that I have been caregiving for my husband John for over a dozen years now, and I wonder how long he must suffer; and how long I must lay down my life. But I believe I'm getting God's perspective on this now. This is intense training. This is sacrificial living. This is running the race that is marked out for each of us. And something I heard Bible teacher Jim Staley say in one of his teachings recently just exploded onto my heart, like the searing of a hot iron. He said, "The 'consider it pure joy' is the shovel that removes the ashes." Wow! He was making reference, of course, to the shovel that the priests used to remove the ashes of sacrificed animals in the time of ancient Israel.  So if I am learning to persevere through pain and great difficulty, and really CONSIDER IT ALL JOY, then something in me has been burned. A sacrifice has been offered to my LORD.  And the joy comes from knowing that I am running the race marked out for me, and learning perseverance that will get me to the finish line, where I will stand before my King Yeshua and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have become mature and complete, not lacking anything! Now come,  you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world."  (Matthew 25:34)