Abandoning the Paddles?

Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life. (James 1:12)

A little earlier in this chapter, we are told that 'if we don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father' and perhaps this is the best advice we could have when it relates to facing 'testing challenges' in life. There are far more times we face those challenges without a clear plan on how to 'handle' the challenge. We want to make it through unscathed, but we know that a whole bunch of stuff is about to be unleashed, and we are in for a whopper of a 'beat down' if we don't get some clarity quickly. At that moment, we can meet it head-on, but to do so without God's perspective on the matter would be sheer foolishness.

The testing challenge may be what reveals to us just how deep our loyalty is to God. It is where the rubber meets the road in our faith walk, isn't it? We don't really want to admit that we aren't fully devoted, but our attentions are divided. We don't realize how little we are truly trusting God with the everyday experiences of life we face, saying we 'trust him deeply', but living as though we trust him very little. How? By attempting to concoct our own plan, follow our own path, or just plain turn tail and run at the slightest difficulty. Faith doesn't just magically appear one day and all is well. There are far more times faith develops in the midst of the most 'testing challenges' of life!

Loyalty means unwavering dedication. Do we do more than recite the principles by which we say we live, or do we actually live by them when the tough times come along? We say we seek God's wisdom, but do we only do that when the times are harder than we'd like? What do we do in the 'not to tough' times? Could it be that we just sail along, feeling pretty doggone sure of ourselves? It doesn't matter if we are in the midst of trials galore or the best of times, loyal followers of Jesus do what they always do - they press into his Word, gleaning what they can for the moment, holding fast to his promises. They don't look for their deliverance anywhere else than at the feet of Jesus. Just because the boat is rocking doesn't mean we abandon the GPS, rudder, or paddles! We hold fast! Just sayin!