December 8

Our tendency is to measure our happiness by the circumstances of our lives. If things are going well, we count ourselves to be happy. If life has hurled difficult challenges our way we allow ourselves to become fraught with anxiety, with stress, with depression. Our prayer is for deliverance.

But James 1:12 informs us that, “Blessed is the man who is patient under trial and stands under temptation, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.” Tests come to everyone.

As an athlete must buffet his body, discipline himself to endure stringent physical exercise in order to be well-prepared for the contest before him, so must the believer be disciplined to be prepared for the spiritual contest before him. The athlete who is out of shape won’t stand in the winner’s place and neither will the believer.

The enemy of the Lord desires that the man of God falter and fail! But if the Christian can recognize the nature of his opponent and if he can appropriate the reality that Jesus has equipped the saint to not only engage in the contest but to prevail over the wiles of the enemy, he can take joy in not only the promised victory but in the battle itself, for it is training him for eternal glory!