Hi Everyone,
Today I closely read a couple of verses in James 1:2-4 speaking of various trials and to consider it joy knowing that the testing of faith produces endurance and LET endurance have its perfect result so that YOU may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.
I thought about endurance; a stretching beyond the limits, the time involved to develop it. But the word LET was curious. For me, it’s like a release or a settling in the tension of pain or unresolve or unanswered questions. I realized that the endurance spoken of here cannot be developed by human means because it completely contradicts my insides. My human endurance wants to fight hard, wants to chase resolve, wants to demand results and answers with the ultimate goal of escaping the tension, the heartache, the psychological and emotional hell, and just have it go away.
But as I do a look back, that is not the endurance spoken of here (at least for me). This endurance is a Godly gift of rest and surrender with a deep recognition that the circumstances were specially designed to transform me! The ‘results’ have many times not been what I would have desired - but I can see that I was changed. Not overnight, sometimes a LONG time! There have many restless nights where I have just cried my eyes out, many nights where I’ve screamed, why Lord did you do this to me? Many many hours and days where it all just felt plain unfair.
But then there have been those defining moments where I LET GOD (I LET the endurance have the result God wants!). This is no easy go for me; I actually rather hate it. However, the more I LET, the quicker the LETTING becomes. Instead of 365 days, it might be 363 - ha! But once I Let and allow God to work His way in me, the seeming hole is filled with Him and I no longer lack.
The Word does not say build endurance - it says LET endurance.
Just Wow.
Love,
Cari