When I lived in Egypt, one of my favorite things to do was to rent a sailboat and it’s captain to cruise up and down the Nile. These captains were very skilled. They would use the wind to take us up or down the river for the first part of the journey. They would then use that same wind and crisscross back and forth to return us back to port. Ion,y had one captain who wasn’t good at it. The wind pushed us up into the reeds where we got stuck. He couldn’t get us out and we started getting eaten up by mosquitoes. We were finally able to flag down another boat who pulled us out. Each captain learned to use the wind to their advantage. They could let it push them down the river and then take them back up it. For some, the wind put them in a bad position because they didn’t know how to navigate it or respond to it. There’s the same correlation to us with difficult times.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us that it rains on the just and the unjust alike. He later said that in this world we would have trouble. Different people throughout the Bible responded differently. In Exodus when the Israelites were trapped against the Red Sea with pharaohs army chasing them, fear took over. When Job lost everything, he fell down and worshipped. When David’s son staged a coup, he didn’t take it out on people. When Paul and Silas were bound in chains in prison, they sang praises. When Naomi lost her husband and sons, she wanted to be called “Bitter.” When the three Hebrew boys wouldn’t bow, they trusted God as they were taken to a fiery furnace. What made the difference was how the responded to adversity. Some ended up crashing in the reeds, while others persevered.
James 1:2-3 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow” (NLT). Adversity will come to all of us. James said to respond to it with joy. He understood that joy isn’t based on our circumstances, but on the outcome because of who we trust in. God causes all things to work together for our good. Hard times can stretch us, grow us and increase our faith if we let them. It’s when we lose our trust that they begin to crush us. We’ve just read the differences of people in the Bible. The level of their faith and trust in God determined their reaction. How do you respond when adversity comes? Do you use it for your advantage to navigate upstream or let it push you into the reeds of doubt?
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 