Trials + Suffering = Patience

A sweet friend shared this Scripture with me yesterday and I have found myself reflecting on it more and more.

1 Peter 4: 12 "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed."

 Because my fibro pain has broken its usual pattern, I do feel as if something strange were happening as the verse says. Knowing that this "fiery trial" is necessary and a cause for rejoicing is hard to absorb.....but I will accept it as part of my growth as one of God's Children. I've also become accustomed to God giving me answers to my questioning mind through people and situations and of course, Scripture.

 Actually over the past three or four days, several verses have "popped" out at me so to speak. I'm certain they are God's way of reassuring me, of giving me comfort while this physical pain has me unable to function normally. Take this next verse for example.

James 1:2-4 "....count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

All that happened last week.....the pain, the fatigue....having to buy new tires and a new phone.....did "test" my faith....but not without positive results. As it says in James, the "testing of my faith produces patience."  And who doesn't need more patience?  Furthermore, if I let "patience" work, I will , eventually, become "complete, lacking nothing." That's what I long for, completeness in the Lord....and if I must endure these trials to reach that state of being, so be it.

Ironic isn't it? But the next verse was one that "popped" out of my quiet time reading this morning. God always knows what I need and when I'm going to need Him to restore the balance in my life.....He will always sustain me with the power of His Holy Spirit......how blessed I am to have found the Source of all that is Good in this world.

Psalm 51:12 "Merciful Lord, restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."