Perfecting Opportunities

There is no doubt that every human being will go through circumstances in his/her life that may bring pain, tears, and/or loss. We will feel a sundry of emotions due to many diverse events in our lives, but it's not about what happens to us, but how we respond and what we do with it that is significant.

No matter what happens, each person has to CHOOSE how he/she is going to respond. It does not always seem to be a conscious decision, but it is a choice that is made.

The Apostle Paul put it this way, "Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, SO THAT you may be MATURE and COMPLETE, LACKING NOTHING" (HCSB, James 1:2-4).

Paul knew that we may not have a choice in what happens to us but we ALWAYS have a choice in the way we respond to it. Otherwise, why write, "consider it a great joy"? Why would it matter how we consider what happens to us? Because PERSPECTIVE is the only thing we can control and when we control this aspect, there is a trickle down effect into other areas of our life. For instance,

"A joyful heart makes a face cheerful, but a sad heart produces a broken spirit" (Proverbs 15:13).

In this verse a "joyful heart" refers to the mental aspect, one's thought process. If one is joyful, the product is a cheerful face, which is an emotion. We can choose to be joyful, just as Paul stated in James, knowing that this choice will lead to healthier emotion. On the flip side, when one has a sad heart, or is fixated on depressive thoughts, it will produce a broken spirit (emotion).

Now being a professional marriage and family therapist, I know that there are often many variables that may make it hard for many to just "get out of the 'sad' slump" but this is not intended to be a depression fix it blog. Sorry, this is intended for the majority of us who want to deny our responsibility in our own trials.

How ironic is it that instead of taking responsibility for our response in our trials, considering them with joy KNOWING they will produce endurance, we would rather push or pray them away, even though God allows them in our life to make us MATURE, COMPLETE, LACKING NOTHING!!!

We live in a world where individuals respond to situations based on results and consequences rather than principles, morals, and ethics. This type of reasoning and lifestyle is contrary to God's Word. God asks that those who profess to follow Him would live by a much higher standard, that we would allow our moral character to dictate our responses to our trials.

How are you responding to the trials in your life? Do you respond based on the possible consequence or because of principles and morals? Do you let what happens to you control you, or change you? God intends it to be in your life to change you to be more like Him, so...consider it all joy.

We don't have problems, we have PERFECTING OPPORTUNITIES.

#joy #endurance #prayer #praise #perspective #joyfulheart