The Testing of Faith… Perfect, Complete, Lacking in Nothing!

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

Just as with all exercise, when you DO IT with a wholeness that both expects and patiently participates and waits for the desired results, our brain sends a glass full of gladness made up of the your sweat and tears. A baptism so to speak of “YES! It is WELL with my soul!” 

I’m not an exercise fan, I procrastinate until I have made up a reasonable  excuse to NOT DO IT. I love the long term results and I love the after-effects of peace and contentment and satisfaction, but — I also love the sigh of relief my body and brain give with the immediate gratification of “No, no, not today!” 

So… I am one of those children of God that first, wails and throws tantrums when I am confronted with the various trials of life. Even with the promised results (perfect and complete, lacking in nothing), I refuse to consider them “all joy” (the glass full fo gladness that tells me it is well with my soul). 

But God, knowing what I DESPERATELY need, is willing to “Train up this child in the way I should go”, even while I’m stamping my feet and having my hissy fit, simply because I am His daughter and He loves me, inspire of me.

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons (and daughters); for what son (or daughter) is there whom his/her father does not discipline?  Hebrews 12:7… or this…  He who withholds his rod hates his son or his daughter, but he who loves him/her disciplines him/her diligently.  Proverbs 13:24

(***We certainly are seeing the results of parental “hate” in our world today!***)

Without Father God, in me and with me and for me, I definitely would be one of those hated children. I am the parent of my earthly self who tends to withholds the rod of faith testing (much like the furnace that is necessary to make the finest/strongest steel), that keeps my inner child safe and provides the perfect – complete, lacking in nothing.

In my childishness, I complain to Abba that, “IF HE REALLY LOVED ME, He could just make it happen WITHOUT making me suffer (or sweat).” Surely a “good parent” would provide my every wish, my every desire, my every request. SURELY!

You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.  Deuteronomy 8:2… He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.  Deuteronomy 8:3… He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its  fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end.  Deuteronomy 8:15-16

In my childishness… When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child;

I know there must come the day… when I become a woman, and do away with childish things.  1 Corinthians 13:11

It is tempting to remain childish even as I PRETEND to be “old enough”, to not depart from the way I should go (Proverbs 22:6), but God sees through the FAKE ME (unlike some of us on the playground), and looks at my heart.

When they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  1 Samuel 16:6-7

God rejects the FAKE ME!

Therefore… even though… All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.  Hebrews 12:11

And even though I hate exercise… I thank my Abba because He believes in me. He loves me enough to see me as the one He made me to be… perfect and complete, lacking in nothing!

I PRAISE GOD and bless His Holy Name because… He won’t stop until He has His way!!!!

This one thing I know — God is good, all the time! And all the time, God is good!

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.