Page 151 - First Steps 2023

Tell your discipler: Who are you serving? What are you serving? Why
do you answer as you do?
Until you’re serving Jesus with your whole heart, you’ll always feel
compromised and confused—and there’s no joy to be found there.

Nor will you experience the power that comes with abiding in Jesus.
It’s Jesus who infuses us with the power and perspective to experi-
ence and live joy.

3. Difficult times.

“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, NASB).

Count on it: A day will come that flattens you, that pulls you into a
world of pain and problems. A day that leaves you breathless, struggling
to cope.
When that day comes, James writes that you’re to “consider it all joy.”
Which may not be your first response.

Sometimes, extreme difficulty all but snuffs out faith. Some Jesus-
followers encounter rough water and sink beneath waves of anger and
despair.
But others...others walk on those waves, finding peace in the storm.
Consider these two stories...

• It happened as Lindsey was driving to church. Turning onto a busy

street she pulled directly in front of a truck that all but crushed her
car. Lindsey, a young, energetic Jesus-follower, died at the scene.
Later, in a quiet corner of a busy emergency room, Lindsey’s parents
(who didn’t share her faith in Jesus and often ridiculed her beliefs)
stood beside their little girl’s lifeless body cursing God for taking Lind-
sey’s life—especially as she was headed to church.

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