A crown awaits

What's your trial? What is it you are attempting to bear up under right now? Some will quickly say it is this social distancing thing, limiting their ability to go about the normal day-to-day activities they would other find themselves doing. Others will admit their trial is some form of illness, perhaps even this COVID-19 or flu virus that is circulating. Still others will acknowledge they are under some spiritual trial, not really sure what it is they are under, but knowing they are fully and completely under some form of attack. Regardless of the trial, the expectation is the same - you hold up because God is holding you up.

Happy is the person who can hold up under the trials of life. At the right time, he’ll know God’s sweet approval and will be crowned with life. As God has promised, the crown awaits all who love Him. (James 1:12)

Holding up begins with us being in right relationship with God. The closer we draw to him, especially 'under pressure', the more we will realize we are 'surviving' not under our own power, but under his. Let me just say - there is no greater source of strength, nor is there any greater source of hope. No weapon will prosper against us when darkness is closing in around us - God is the one who dispels both the darkness AND the weapon! God's view on our present circumstances is much greater than ours - so why try to muddle through without him. 

How many times do we see all the negatives in the midst of the trial and forget there are a lot of positives we don't see? I think this is the case most of the time, because we naturally gravitate to the negative instead of the positive. Some may say they have this 'positive viewpoint' down pat, but let me assure you that we don't see things as positively as we may think. We have such a limited view of the circumstances that our full comprehension of the situation is just not going to lend itself to being positive about all that is going on that we aren't able to see. This is where trust comes in - when we cannot see the positive, or think we know all that is going on, we have to trust that God has all in his hands (the stuff we see and all the stuff we don't see).

I am not going to paint a rosy picture today - trials are tough, we cannot avoid them, and they take us to places we would rather not have to travel at all. Trials are 'negative' in their focus, but we don't have to be negative in ours! We can remain positive in the midst of the trial because we know our God is in control. Just sayin!