“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.” James 1:2-4

A quick search through a Merriam Webster dictionary produced the following results when I looked up the word Trial.

a test of faith, patience, or stamina through subjection to suffering or temptation; broadly : a source of vexation or annoyance

a tryout or experiment to test quality, value, or usefulness

When I think of trials, I often think of terrible things that happen in a person’s life.  I think about people who survive near death situations, deaths in the family, sickness, and bankruptcy.  These are all terrible situations and should certainly fall into the category of a trial as they are more than vexations or annoyances and would be better classified as sufferings causing a level of physical and emotional distress.  Looking at the verse above and making it personal can sometimes be difficult if your perception of a trial is solely defined as an extreme circumstance.  Extreme circumstances may not happen often in your life.   In fact, you could be well along your path of living and feel that you haven’t faced such a circumstance.  When reading this verse, you may struggle to make it personal if you feel that you haven’t faced a trial.

I believe this is a serious trick of the enemy.  It’s easy to be so distracted in this life that when situations come up which test both one’s faith and patience; we fail to recognize it for what it really is.  As a result, we don’t realize how many times we fail when facing such trials.  The verse above tells us to count it joy when we face various trials indicating that they are an opportunity for us to pass a test and improve upon successful completion.  If we don’t see the hurdle in our path, how do we jump over it?

Trials come in many forms as indicated above.  A trial may be severe temptations we face each day.  It may even come in the form of small circumstances or annoyances which pick at us in our daily routine.  How do we react when someone cuts us off in traffic?  How about when we hear someone speaking negatively or gossiping about us?  It’s easy to let emotion get the best of us or to jump to conclusions in certain situations.  These may sound like small things, but they can get in the way of our personal spiritual development.  It’s time we recognize the various tests we face daily and remember that successfully passing these tests will help build our character little by little.

As we grow, we may face more severe tests in our lives.  What’s important is not that we look at how big the trial may be, but that we remember our God is here with us to help us through each and every trial.  As you remember what He’s done for you in past circumstances, you should develop the patience to make it through your current circumstance even if you don’t know the answer or which direction you need to take.  Doing so will develop your faith as well since faith is often what is being tested.

Use trials both great and small as an opportunity to grow your character.  Recognizing the trial and being able to trust in God is a big step in personal growth.  It’s easy to try to fight it on your own or shrug it off as an unfortunate event.  Seeing past the physical realm can make all the difference as we pursue perfection and completeness in Christ.

When bad things happen, I know I don’t always think about where my faith is or whether or not I’m being patient.  I know these are things I pray for each day so they are on my mind.  Sometimes we look far ahead to an end goal without realizing there is a process we go through in order to get there.  Some of the greatest persons of faith successfully endured great trials.  One key was recognizing the trial and most importantly, recognizing the need for God in order to make it through those trials.  So let’s take an account each day of the various trials we face and remember to look to God in each of these circumstances so that the testing of our faith may produce the patience required in developing the right character.

Article written by Freddy Mathew. Freddy is a member of the Fusion leadership team and drama team. You can reach him at fred@fusion316.org.

In the past week we’ve launched a new site! We’re really excited by the opportunities it introduces, namely user-submitted content. We really want you to help us build out our content by providing any inspirational/thought-provoking articles or devotionals or even artwork. Pray about it, and if you feel led, email us at info@fusion316.org.

Also – we’re really looking forward to your comments! Even if you don’t feel led to submit an article, we’d love to hear what your response is to what we post on the site.

One last thing, we’re also expanding what you take from the meetings to the web. For all of our Fusion First Friday meetings we are now going to have notes, video and photos from the event. We want this site to be an on-going resource for you, so any ideas you might have will be greatly appreciated.

Have fun browsing the site!

There are nearly 1,500,000 people living in the city of Philadelphia, not including its surrounding towns. Without a doubt, we can make a better effort of sharing the Good News in our city – but it can only happen from us working together.

The coffee was flowing and there was no shortage of donuts and cookies on Friday night as young people from throughout the city came to hang out and hear about ministry opportunities in the area.  Lighthouse, Urban Worship Center Project 215 , HUSH and of course Fusion shared about exciting ways to serve God.  It was amazing to hear about the exciting things that God is doing through these ministries!  We also had a chance to experience the talents of many of the young people in these ministries through songs, rap, videos, etc.  What a great time.  We’ll have to do it again soon!