Speaker 1: Life Audio.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to your daily prayer, where we
Speaker 2: help you find the words you need to connect with
Speaker 2: your Father in Heaven. No matter what is happening in
Speaker 2: your life today, you can trust that God wants to
Speaker 2: hear from you. Right after this short word from our sponsors,
Speaker 2: we'll pray for today's prayer to grow enjoy and trust
Speaker 2: through trials. A Prayer to grow enjoy and trust through
Speaker 2: Trials written and read by Kerrie Eichberg. Consider it pure joy,
Speaker 2: my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
Speaker 2: because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Speaker 2: James one, verses two and three. I am, ever so
Speaker 2: slowly stepping out of one of the hardest seasons of
Speaker 2: my life, and if I'm being completely honest, I have
Speaker 2: wrestled with God quite a bit in the process, wondering
Speaker 2: what in the world he was doing, why he would
Speaker 2: allow such suffering, and whether He was really there in
Speaker 2: the midst of my unimaginable pain. There were times that
Speaker 2: the only thing that kept me going was the truth
Speaker 2: welded on my heart that my Savior had always come
Speaker 2: through from me before, so surely he would carry me
Speaker 2: through again. Along the journey, I remember my eyes and
Speaker 2: ears randomly catching biblical claims about our growth through trials,
Speaker 2: and to be honest, they kind of rubbed me the
Speaker 2: wrong way. I could hardly see how not to mention,
Speaker 2: who really wants to grow this way? Isn't there a
Speaker 2: better way? One is a little more comfortable and a
Speaker 2: lot less painful. I specifically wrestled with James one, verse two,
Speaker 2: which tells us to consider a pure joy when we
Speaker 2: face trials of many kinds confession. I wanted to sarcastically
Speaker 2: laugh out loud at the mere thought. And I bet
Speaker 2: you know what I'm talking about. Consider your most difficult
Speaker 2: season of life. I sincerely hope you're not there now,
Speaker 2: but it may feel like it, and it's so I
Speaker 2: am so sorry. But has it been hard by enjoy
Speaker 2: and your suffering and sorrow?
Speaker 1: Of course, because.
Speaker 2: Suffering hurts, and sorrow causes extreme heartache, which seems to
Speaker 2: rip the joy right out of our reality? So how
Speaker 2: are we actually to find any joy in our despair
Speaker 2: and devastation? The following verse James one, verse three tells
Speaker 2: us that the testing of our faith produces perseverance. Some
Speaker 2: versions mention growth, endurance, steadfastness, or patience? And can you
Speaker 2: connect joy to any of these attributes? I can consider that.
Speaker 2: And though we may not always automatically find joy in
Speaker 2: the pit of our darkest days, what if we could
Speaker 2: attempt to do only with the first word of verse
Speaker 2: two instructs consider consider the joy. If we could even
Speaker 2: imagine that through our pain, there just might be a
Speaker 2: production of perseverance, patience, or a stronger faith. Wouldn't that
Speaker 2: give us a glimmer of hope? And isn't there a spark.
Speaker 1: Of joy in just a bit of hope? Wouldn't even
Speaker 1: the slightest.
Speaker 2: Hope be more than welcome when we are drowning on
Speaker 2: what feels like the depths of darkness.
Speaker 1: I think we'd all take that.
Speaker 2: I can see it as I look back on the
Speaker 2: hard moments and faces of life, and as I'm climbing
Speaker 2: out of a valley right now, my perspective has changed.
Speaker 1: I'm not as rattled by the smaller things.
Speaker 2: I feel more equipped to take on the bigger things.
Speaker 2: In the recent past and all of my life, I've
Speaker 2: seen God show up day after day after day, I've witnessed.
Speaker 1: Him never leave my side.
Speaker 2: Week after week, after week, and I've felt his spirit
Speaker 2: slowly infuse my soul as he has continued carrying me
Speaker 2: year after year. God is carrying you too, and there
Speaker 2: is hope available to you in each hardship as you
Speaker 2: simply contemplate the good God might be working through every
Speaker 2: difficult situation you face. There is joy awaiting you as
Speaker 2: you consider what He is producing from every single struggle.
Speaker 2: And there are blessings to be found as you acknowledge
Speaker 2: what He is opening up and offering through it all.
Speaker 2: You can trust God and his goodness at work in
Speaker 2: the heart. You can trust God's word, which reminds us
Speaker 2: repeatedly that he is always trustworthy. And if you keep
Speaker 2: your eyes and heart wide open, you'll see and experience
Speaker 2: his promised, abounding blessings. You'll find swells of hope, You'll
Speaker 2: feel swells of joy. And as you continue to consider
Speaker 2: God's constant goodness, your joy will keep growing even from
Speaker 2: one sorrow to the next. Your trust in our good
Speaker 2: God will keep growing in and through one trial and
Speaker 2: one day the next. Let's pray, Lord God, your word
Speaker 2: tells me that you use all things for good. But
Speaker 2: to be honest, sometimes life hurts so much that it's
Speaker 2: hard to.
Speaker 1: See and imagine any good.
Speaker 2: Help me to remember that you were all powerful, that
Speaker 2: you are a God of goodness, that you love me
Speaker 2: more than I can fathom, and that you are absolutely
Speaker 2: trustworthy at all times. And Lord, help me to simply
Speaker 2: consider these beautiful truths in and through my sorrows and suffering.
Speaker 2: Because when I acknowledge you your power and your blessings
Speaker 2: and my difficulties, I find hope. And in hope there's joy.
Speaker 2: I praise you for the joy you make always available
Speaker 2: to me. In your faithful name, I pray, Amen, if
Speaker 2: you liked what you've heard today, I think you will
Speaker 2: love my latest book, When over Worry, conquer what shakes
Speaker 2: you you, and soar with the One who overcomes. You
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Speaker 3: I hope it blesses you.
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