James 1:4

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (NIV)

So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (The Message)

When things are going badly, when times are hard, all you really want to do is curl up into a ball, make the world go away, walk out on the situation, the people and go to a desert island or some place where you won't be worried or bothered by what is going on around you. When you are trying to do your best, be patient, considerate, kind and caring and all people do is throw it back in your face, ridicule and taunt you, or when the day to day problems seem insurmountable, money problems, job worries, illness, stress, you name it, today's world is full of problems, what do you do? How do you cope?

Well, James is telling us to be patient, to persevere, to carry on, and just lean on God, trust in Him. How we react when we are under pressure, when the stress is too much to bear, shows exactly what type of person we are, whether our Christian beliefs are just skin deep or really go all the way down into our hearts. Can we really be patient when our children are yelling at one another, wrestling on the floor with one of them trying to kick and bite the other? What about when we have no money to pay the bills, the mortgage? When everyone is demanding this, that or the other expecting you to pull it out of a hat like a magician with his rabbit? And what about work, or the lack of it? Can we really demonstrate the love of Jesus when people are being laid off all around us and there are no jobs to be found anywhere?

Then what about your faith, how people treat you when they know you are a Christian? Do they ridicule you, watch you closely to see how/when you slip up? Do they change their habits, their language, when you are around? Or maybe no one knows, it is a secret you carry around with you and never talk about because you know your life would be made a misery if others knew.

We each have our own problems, our own troubles in life. But how do we react when under pressure? Do we try and wriggle out of it, put the blame on others, run away and hide, or do we persevere, carry on despite the problems, trusting in God to see us through it?

This letter was written to the persecuted church. They had left their homes, possibly their families, and moved away, to different towns and cities, even different countries as there were people out to kill them because they believed in Jesus. The same thing is happening today in many parts of the world. In Orissa, Christians have been burnt alive in their own homes by mobs of Hindu protestors. In Nigeria, Christians have been hacked to death, there have been mass burials as there were too many dead to bury individually. In North Korea, you, your husband or wife, children, brothers, sisters, parents can all be imprisoned just because you yourself are a Christian. In Eritrea there are currently around 2,500 Christians in prison because of their faith. Being a Christian is a matter of life and death in those and many other countries in the world. Yet how do they react? They count it all as joy.

I read of the troubles they go through and I am in awe of their faith, of how they react when their husbands are beaten to death, when they are forced from their homes, lose their jobs, have no recourse other than to sell their bodies to provide for their families. Hate and despair does not fill their lives, in fact exactly the opposite. They are so full of love it shines out of their eyes and faces. Their troubles have refined and honed them to be more like Jesus and just imagine what joy awaits them when they get to heaven?!!!

I want that in my life. Not the persecution, obviously, as it is definitely not something on my Christmas list although even here in the west there is persecution of Christians, but for the love of Jesus to shine from me no matter what I am going through, what struggles I am having.

So how do we get that in our lives? How do we persevere no matter what the odds facing us? It is a case of trusting in God, of turning our hearts and minds to Him at all times and in all circumstances. We are never alone, God is always with us :

Psalm 73:23 (NIV) Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

Psalm 16:8 (NIV) I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

So we have to change our mindset, to stop focusing our eyes on ourselves and our problems, our worries and turn them to Jesus. Jesus told us in no uncertain terms not to worry:

Matthew 6: 25-34 (NIV)Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

And then look at what he says in Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

They have to be some of my favourite verses. The sheer peace that those verses bring to me is unbelievable. To know that I can cast all my cares, all my worries on Jesus, and He will take care of each and every single one of them is such a relief, such a lightening of the load on my shoulders. No matter what I am facing, He is there by my side and I can leave everything in His hands. It doesn't mean I can sit back and expect money to pour into my bank account without me going to work, or that a meal will miraculously appear on the table without anyone cooking it, or that this morning my husband will wake up with no trace of depression ever again. What it does mean is that I can rest my heart, because I know all things are in God's hands, that He knows the Master Plan, He knows the full picture and all things will work out according to His will in time, his time, not mine. It means those Christians in Orissa can face each day because they have Jesus, they carry the Holy Spirit within them and they know that the things we go through here on earth are just temporary, fleeting, because we will spend eternity with Jesus in heaven.

We need to let our lights shine, to face the world with joy in our hearts, peace in our minds, because we are not of this world. We need to demonstrate our faith by our actions, our deeds, our perseverance in times of trouble, how we react to the bad things in life (and there is certainly no shortage of those).

I pray that we will each have peace in our hearts today no matter what we face, that the love of God will shine from us and through us, and our reactions when under stress, under pressure, others may be drawn to Christ.