“Storms are going to come” Author and Writer Ronald Nelson

BIBLE MEDITATION:

1 Peter 4:12–13: “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

ENCOURAGING WORD:

First of all, know this. When you get saved, that doesn’t means that there will be no storms in your life? There will be storms. The rain comes down. That’s pressure from above. The floods come up. That’s pressure from beneath. The wind blows; that’s pressure all around. Man that is born of woman is full of trouble. Storms come in every life. Saved or lost. Built on the rock or built on the sand. I can tell you from the authority of the Word of God, you are going to have storms in your life, and you know what the storm is going to do! The storm is going to show whether or not you have a foundation in Christ. That’s all its going to do. The storm is going to test your faith. And the faith that cannot be tested is the faith that cannot be trusted. So, don’t get the idea that simply when you get saved, that tthere is going to be no more trouble, no more difficulty. The storms are going to come. And if you get your theology from circumstances rather than from the Word of God, you’re going to get the idea that God doesn’t love you. Let me tell you friends, storms are going to come. Theres going to be sickness, there’s going to be suffering, there’s going to be persecution, there’s going to be heartache, there’s going to be difficulty, but these things cannot separate a man whose life is built on the Rock (Jesus is the Rock, not Peter)

Side note: If I were a Christian because of other Christians, I would most likely be an atheist by now. I am a Christian because of Jesus. Not because of any person or church building. I know a lot of people that say they are Christians, but in no way live by example. These are the so-called Christians about which I am talking about.

Now, lets get back to my original reason for this blog.

Key Bible Verses on Storms in our lives (Trails and Tribulation)

James 1:2–4;  My brethren, 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.”

Authors, such as Paul, often open their letters with gradual introductions. Not so with James. Without warming up or giving comforting introductory words, James immediately launches into the foundation of his letter. He begins with a profoundly challenging command. In essence, he says that we should find joy in bad things that happen to us.Of course, that's exactly backwards from a normal human response to hardship. Many of James' readers were likely facing poverty and persecution, but he purposefully uses the words "trials of various kinds." Everyone experiences trials. James means for believers to respond to troubles, regardless of size, by counting that experience as "joy." Why would James write such a demanding thing to suffering people? As usual, context is key in understanding the meaning of Scripture. Verses 3 and 4 provide crucial explanation for what James means. To stop with this verse, it will create deep misunderstanding. Also, we must notice what James does NOT say. He doesn't command Christians to "feel happy either" when trials come. He tells us to "call it" joyful, to label it as a thing worth rejoicing over. The word "count" is used in some translations instead of "consider." This is from the Greek hēgēsasthe, which is an accounting term. James is implying that we should enter our hardships as deposits into the checkbook of our life, not withdrawals. He's not talking about our immediate emotional response to a flat tire, or an illness, or the loss of a loved one. He's talking about how we categorize that moment when assessing our life as a whole. It's still a hard command. And yet, it acknowledges something important which we don't always admit, we can decide how we will describe any moment to ourselves. We may not be able to control our circumstances, but we can, apparently, control how we think about our circumstances. When bad things happen, we can immediately say, "This is terrible. This is a bad day. My life is going wrong. Why did this happen to me?" Or we can say to ourselves, "This is a bad thing, but I will get through it. I will learn from it and be stronger. I will call the growth and strength worth rejoicing over, even while it hurts."

Verses 2, 3, and 4 need to be considered together in order to fully grasp the point James is making. In the previous verse, he has written that believers must call it joy when trials come our way. Or, to put it more bluntly, we should see the good side of bad things happening to us. Verse 2 uses an accounting term, which has nothing to do with our emotions. We might feel sorrow or anger over our trials, but we can still tally them under "joy." In verse 3, James gives the beginning of his answer to why God would ask us to do that. In short, it's about faith. It's about trusting God. God wants us to respond to trials, to the hard things in our lives, in a way that demonstrates our trust in Him. A major theme of the book of James is that God cares deeply about our faith in Him. Faith, a trusting, humble reliance on God, is how we came into relationship with Him in the first place. That is how we come to trust in Christ for our salvation. And a Christian's growing faith in God is evidence of a growing relationship with Him. So, James says that when a trial or hardship comes our way, we should label that moment as joyful because it will test our faith. By definition, a trial creates a moment where we don't know how things will work out. A trial wrecks our plans. A trial takes away our ability to see the clear path to getting what we think will make us happy. It is in those moments that we make life's most critical choices. Either we will decide, "If God let this happen to me, I will not trust Him. If He will not prevent days like this, I will find someone else to trust." Or the struggle will push us to turn to God for more help, to trust more deeply that He is with us and for us, to believe that He will carry us through. When we choose to trust Him, He provides. Our endurance, the ability to keep trusting Him while trials continue unresolved, grows. And since our faith is the most important thing to our God, that is worth rejoicing.

James has instructed Christians to "account" for hardships as joy, because such moments grow our faith. Even when we're heartbroken over what has happened, we can trust God to use it to make us stronger. Why would God want us to label as "joyful" those terrible moments? Because trials test our faith. When we keep trusting God through the trials, our faith in Him grows. And, from God's perspective, our growing faith in Him is far more important than not experiencing hard things. In fact, this verse says that perfection, complete maturity, is found only in perfect faith in God. More specifically, James uses the concept of endurance, steadfastness or perseverance, to describe the ability to trust God more and more. As a runner gains endurance by suffering through another mile, Christians also gain the ability to trust God through trials. Each experience grants us a deeper, stronger level of trust in Him. In all areas of life, growth only comes through overcoming difficulty. Spirituality is no different. James writes that we shouldn't make the point of our lives an all-out effort to avoid trials. Instead, we should make the most of them by letting "endurance", trusting God through another trial, create the result in us that it always does. Namely, more maturity, and more trust in God. In fact, James goes so far as to say that the one who can trust God without stopping, no matter how terrible the trial, will have arrived at perfection, complete maturity. None of us is there, yet, but every believer in Jesus is on the way. We just need more trials to keep us growing in that direction.

Romans 5:3–5: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

Verse 3 implies that Christians still suffer on this side of eternity. Being in Christ does not end our personal, temporary suffering on earth. Suffering does, however, produce something Paul here calls "endurance," which itself produces other powerful, positive characteristics in us. Endurance is the ability to keep going when we feel like stopping, as long distance runners train themselves to do. In this context, endurance is about our ability to trust God for longer stretches of time and through greater degrees of difficulty. Suffering, in other words, is an opportunity to trust God at a deeper level through harder stuff. James introduced his letter with this exact idea when he said, "Count it all joy," my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness

Paul and James both see this reality as reason for rejoicing. They understand "rejoicing" to be a choice we make to declare even our hardest circumstances as God's good for us, in the sense that He is calling us closer, and to trust in Him more deeply.

Paul adds that this battle-tested faith of endurance produces in Christians, the quality of character. Christians of character choose to keep doing the right things on a consistent basis. The pattern is that suffering causes us to trust God on a deeper level, and the more we trust God, the most likely we are to consistently make right choices. We become Christians of proven character. Character too, produces a new quality in us: hope. In the context of Romans and the New Testament, "hope" is confidence that God will deliver what He promised. Hope implies some level of certainty that we will receive God's good forever. Hope defines the baseline or a "bottom line" for a Christian's thoughts and emotions. No matter what comes along, we are fully convinced that our ultimate end will be sharing in the glories of God forever.

Paul concludes in these three verses by saying that our hope will never put us to shame. By that, Paul means our hope will be fully vindicated. We will never, in the end, be disappointed for hoping to receive God's goodness forever. Why can believers be so confident about our ultimate destination? Paul's answer reveals the very emotion of God toward us. His love has been poured in our hearts. In other words, God will always, always keep His promises to us because He loves us. It is not just that God is powerfully able to do what He has promised. It is not just that God is good. It is because He cares about us, loves us, so deeply that each of us actually carries His love inside of us, through the Holy Spirit. That makes God's promises powerful indeed. Finally, Paul adds as almost an afterthought that each person who trusts in Christ has been given God's own Holy Spirit to live in our hearts—in our inner being. That may be the most powerful benefit Paul has mentioned.

John 16:33; “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Christ's words, recorded here, are among the most cherished in the gospel of John. This statement combines teaching, remembrance, warning, and encouragement. Becoming a Christian does not guarantee an easy life. In fact, Jesus has made it clear that following Him will lead to persecution;

John 16:1–2; “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. (This verse is being fulfilled by the Islamic world as we speak. Their God (Satan) commands that Muslims must kill all infidels in the name of Allah)       

The joy held by born-again believers comes from knowing that Christ has already obtained ultimate victory, and nothing in this world can undo that what Romans 8:38–39; declares. “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Christ made it clear, in advance, that hard times that come should reassure believers: these situations do not take God by surprise. Several times during the Last Supper, Jesus has pointed out that He is deliberately giving advance warning of His death. His explicit purpose for this is encouragement; rather than reacting in fear or confusion, Christians should be aware that those experiences are part of God's greater plan. The book of Hebrews, especially chapter 11, celebrates heroes of the faith who chose to "hold fast" and trust in God. That trust, Scripture shows, was well-placed, even if fulfillment of God's promises didn't come until after those believers had passed into eternity. The "peace" Jesus speaks of is not worldly comfort, or even happiness. This is the confident "rest" believers experience when they set aside anxiety and trust God to work out His will. As is common in both ancient literature and biblical prophecy, Jesus speaks of something guaranteed by God as if it has already happened. Prior to this Last Supper, Christ overcame the temptations of a human life and the direct lures of Satan. The greater victory, however, will come after His arrest and crucifixion, when He is raised from the dead.

1 Peter 4:12–13: “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

Peter begins a new section of his letter, summing up and adding to what he has previously written about the believer's attitude towards suffering. He begins by calling his readers "beloved" or "dear friends." Peter certainly cares deeply for the scattered Christians of Asia Minor and, by extension, for all the believers who would read his words. However, he again urges them (and us) to expect fierce trials, instead of being surprised by them. We should not see persecution as strange and unusual for God's people. Hardships of all kinds will come. For these first century Christians, which would include intense political and social persecution for their faith in Christ. False teachers mislead Christians, even today, telling us to expect only good days if we make God-pleasing choices. Peter shreds that idea, telling believers to expect just the opposite. In essence, Peter says to not judge God's character or trustworthiness by the quality of our circumstances. Those fiery trials test our faith or, as Peter will write in a few verses, serve as a kind of crucible for the church to purify its faith. God's set-apart people should not be shocked when suffering comes our way.

Now, I believe I have covered this topic pretty well. So, you can go on believing what your church leaders tell you or once again, you can believe the word of God.

Let me sum this up in a nutshell. If you are truly a born-again Christian, and if you are going through what seems to be trial after trial, know this, Jesus promised that His true church would go through bad times during our stay on this earth. Now, if you say that you are a Christian and you’re just cruising through life without a worry, I would have to say, you better evaluate your relationship with Jesus.

The closer we get to the soon return of Jesus Christ to gather His church unto Himself, the harder life will be for us. This is more a message of comfort for those that are saved, so you know that what you are going through, is working out for good and one day soon, you will be with the Lord.

When James 1:2–4;  “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” He is not saying we should be happy, because nobody finds happiness in trails, He is saying we should feel the Joy of knowing that  we are His children, and one day we will be with Him forever, while all those that prospered on earth during this life will most likely be spending eternity in the worst environment imageable. In other words, God is saying, pay we now or pay me later. Pay me now which is a short time, or pay me later, which is forever.

So, I hope all this brings you comfort or fear, if its fear, you still have time to make that change.

In the end, it will be up to you as to where you spend eternity.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Amen!