Thought for Wednesday, 21 June

 James 1:2, 3 and 12

Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity

for joy.  For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So, let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.  God blesses the people who patiently endure testing.  Afterwards they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 

There’s a song that came out in the seventies that I still like, and it’s called ‘Let it grow’.  The chorus has the following words:

Let it grow, let it grow
Let it blossom, let it flow
In the sun, the rain, the snow
Love is lovely, let it grow.

I haven’t heard this song for a long time but today’s reading reminded me of it.  It was always the music rather than the lyrics that attracted me to a song but on revisiting this particular song, the lyrics have an innocent simplicity that I find appealing, and I certainly can’t argue with the sentiment.  If you get time to listen to the whole song you’ll find all the verses are like that as well as the chorus. 

For me, this is a particularly busy week with quite a lot on my ‘to-do list’.  There’s been a few things getting me down and I was nearly asking Jenny to cover for me today (which, due to the short notice would have been unfair).  There’s a few other decisions I nearly made that, on hindsight, would have been wrong.  There’s a few things cropped up that were making me a bit angry.  It makes me smile when, in a week like this, I come across this particular excerpt from the scriptures which made me put my handbrake on, cool down, breathe and think.  It made me focus on my priorities and it made me think who or what was encouraging me to do the wrong things. 

A person much smarter than I once wrote: ‘There is no greater time to grow in an intimate knowledge of God than when you are going through hard times. “Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breathe, and have faith that everything will work out for the best.” “God gave you this life because he knew you were strong enough to live it.”  When everything is going well in our lives our heart is going in 10 different directions. When you’re going through trials you are more inclined to seek the Lord with all of your heart.  Henry T. Blackaby said, “Wisdom is not what you know about the world but how well you know God.” There is no greater time to grow in an intimate knowledge of God than when you are going through hard times.’ 

Whether it be love, whether it be perseverance, whether it be forgiveness, whether it be resisting temptation, it’s surely a good thing to ‘Let it grow’. 

Prayer - Heavenly Father, thank You for the inspiration the scriptures bring and all the truth they contain. May we be ready and willing to patiently learn the lessons that You would teach us in each difficult situation we come to face in this life.  And Lord, help us resist the temptations that prevent us doing what you would have us do.  Let our faith in You grow stronger each day.      Amen