James 1:2-3 — Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
You’ve probably heard the saying that a woman is like a teabag—you never know her strength until you drop her in hot water.
Yeah, I feel like I have been dropped inside of a pot of boiling water lately, and honestly, I don’t really like the hot water. None of us do.
None of us ask for it. We don’t wake up hoping for illness or heartbreak or disappointment. We don’t put financial struggles on our calendars or pray for uncertainty.
But sometimes the hot water comes anyway.
When it does, it can feel like everything is being tested all at once. The things we thought we could handle suddenly feel heavier. The questions get louder. The answers seem farther away. And sometimes we find ourselves wondering how much more we can take.
But maybe there is something happening in those moments that we can’t see yet.
James tells us to consider it joy when we face trials because the testing of our faith produces perseverance.
That can be a hard thing to hear when you are actually in the middle of the trial. It’s one thing to read about perseverance when life is going well. It’s another thing entirely when you are the one sitting in the hot water.
But James isn’t saying the trial itself is good. He’s showing us that God can use what is hard to produce something good in us.
The pressure can reveal things in us that God is using to grow our faith, and maybe that’s why the hot water matters. The strength we thought we didn’t have can show up. The faith we thought was small can hold on. The trust we thought was fragile can somehow make it through another day.
And maybe you are in that hot water right now. Maybe you didn’t ask for it, and you certainly wouldn’t have chosen it.
But you are not there alone.
God is still working in you, even when you can’t see what He is producing, and the faith He is building in you may be stronger than you realize.
Sometimes you don’t discover your strength until you are tested.
And sometimes you don’t discover how faithful God has been to strengthen you until you find yourself in the heat.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
- What “hot water” are you walking through right now, and how is it affecting your faith?
- When life gets difficult, is your first response to ask “Why me?” or to ask “God, what are You doing in me?”
- Can you think of a difficult season when God strengthened your faith or helped you endure more than you thought you could?
- What might God be growing in you through the trial you’re facing right now?
- What would it look like today to trust that God is still working, even if you can’t yet see what He is producing?
