My Daily Pause

Disaster pursues sinners, but the righteous are rewarded with good.
– Proverbs 13:21

At first glance, this passage does very little to comfort the faithful Christian when they are amid life’s challenges. And what about the unrepentant sinners enjoying celebrity status on TV?

A study of Job reveals life isn’t as black and white as this proverb leads us to believe. A righteously lived life will have some bad events and a sinner’s life will have good events.

Maybe the trick is to remember what the divine author has in mind for us. (James 5:7)

My hands were sticky and purple from broken blackberries and burning from the briar scratches. They seemed to scratch me no matter what I tried to avoid it.

I had been out there for what seemed like forever to my sixth grade experience and the bottom of my pan was barely covered.

How I ended up in this mess is just a blur – All I know is I simply asked my grandmother when there was going to be blackberry jelly this year.

If she said anything, I didn’t hear it. She just bent under the sink and I heard her digging that pan out from under the sink. That pan is the pan that comes out when someone is going to have to go to the garden – and it held at least 40 gallons. Any twelve year old that hears that sound would know to run the other direction, but I was trapped.

Let me just say, I have since have tested every blackberry jelly sold in stores and I have never found one that comes close to the jelly my grandmother used to make.

Blackberries are a lot of trouble to gather, but worth it in the end!

After suffering awhile with the hot sand and the thorns, I see a most joyous site! Grandma was coming out to rescue me! In a matter of minutes, the pan was full enough for her and she invited me back up to have something to drink. On the walk up I asked her how long I had been out there. She said she thought it was a little more than a half an hour.

The answer to the next question became part of the fabric of my life. “Why does it have to be so hard to get the blackberries?”

With a soft laugh she replied, “So you’ll remember to be thankful for them.”

I’m sure I didn’t have a lot of use for that answer as a sixth grader, but as I read through 1 Peter 1:3-9 and think about those Christians dealing with some extraordinary times, I start to really get that. The passages about how our patience and joy should grow and abound also take me back to that day almost every time. (James 1:2-4, Romans 5:3-5)

“So I’ll remember to be thankful ….”

I’m sure Grandma would be proud to know she was first to introduce me to the idea that life’s challenges happen for our benefit just like these passages teach us.

I am sure too, that the jelly was the best ever that year.

Daily Bible reading for August 20

Psalm 18
1 Samuel 5:1-7:2
Jeremiah 50
1 Peter 1:1-12

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance Gal 5:22-23

The underlying Greek word for longsuffering is Makrothumia (mak-roth-oo-mee’-ah). It is defined as – forebearance, fortitude, longsuffering, patience.

Longsuffering is Built Through Experience

James 5:10-11 – James points us to Job for an example of what Longsuffering means and the reward the Lord has in mind

Two reasons we need to be able to withstand situations that test us:

1. Patience leads to perfection leaving us wanting nothing:
   

   My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. – James 1:2-4 

2. Patience leads to the hope that is founded on God’s goodness and truth
   

    And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. – Romans 5: 3-5

Let us be those that works our way through life’s challenges for the growth we achieve and the reward God has in store for us!

Daily Bible reading for July 10

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
Joshua 8
Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
Matthew 19:1-20:16