Suffer Well for the Glory of God

Hello everyone!!

I’ve never thought of myself as someone who would become a blogger, but here I am. I was always told growing up that God would call each and every one of His followers to do something out of their comfort zone or leave something they once cherished behind in order to give their lives to Him, the giver of life. I guess I can just place “become a blogger for His glory” in the box that contains all the uncomfortable zones I have and will have to go through on my walk with Christ.

But seriously, I am SO excited to be a part of the World Race Gap Year and cannot wait to see what God has in store for me as I share this journey with you! In fact, I’ve already experienced some pretty incredible works of God since I got accepted just 2 months ago. 

God works in mysterious ways, or at least that’s how I interpret it. One of the ways I witnessed this was over the past couple of days. Recently, I have been praying that God would bless me and those around me with a sense of supernatural joy. This is because I’ve noticed that in the middle of our hectic, stress-filled lives, finding a sense of joy can easily be forgotten. God answered my prayers by reminding me how to keep hold of that joy, but not in the way I expected…

Two days ago I was looking through the Instagram profiles of my fellow squadmates when my attention was caught by a verse in one of the bios. James 1:2-4 — “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. At the time, I didn’t think anything in particular about that verse. It was the next morning in Sunday service, however, that it became loud and clear the message God was trying to get across. 

I couldn’t believe it when the new sermon series turned out to be in James, and the verse of the week, James 1:2-4. The take-away from the sermon was that, as followers of Christ, we are to have joy through our trials because even when the things of this life aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, our joy that is rooted in Christ always is. And when God puts us through our various trials here on earth, He does so because He knows it will grow our faith and steadfastness in a way that will cause us to gain endurance, maturity, wisdom, humility, and a stronger awareness of sin’s snares as well as God’s grace. But most of all, He does it so we may suffer well for the glory of God. In short, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” — Romans 5:3-5.

Starting my journey on the World Race, this is a huge lesson to be reminded of. I know that this trek will not be easy, and there will be times when the last emotion I can think about is joy. Nonetheless, I now know that no matter the situation, I have joy in Jesus Christ, and I hope you know that now too.

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him. — James 1:12

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Brianna <3