Be Still And Know

James 1:12 If we are honest, most of us would rather not have to face problems and difficulties. We often pray that God would take away any challenges in life so that we can enjoy a life of peace and joy. Surely that is just the sort of thing he would want for us! But in our broken and disordered world, we, like everyone else, will have to face many difficulties and challenges. And, as Christians, we have Jesus’ assurance that we will have an additional layer of burdens and opposition to bear simply because we follow him. Jesus told his disciples that the world was bound to hate them in just the same way as it hated him because they, too, did not belong to the world (John 15:18-19). This means we need to be equipped to face all kinds of testing and temptation. That’s why James stressed the importance of endurance in this opening chapter of his letter. His readers needed to hang in there through good times and bad. They needed to stand strongly in their faith whether they were being loved or loathe