Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. 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. (James 1:2-4 The Message)
Fear Not… Then Grow Up
I did not learn how to read until college.
In high school, I thought I was reading. But I would do homework for one class while in another class. I knew my teachers’ methods, and knew how they used textbooks, so I never had to actually deeply read. I skimmed, seeking confirming information that I had heard from my teachers’ lectures.
And then college.
I almost failed my entire first semester. Primarily because I did not know how to read with a highlighter in one hand, with an outline forming in my mind, with an attitude of trying to learn.
That process of relearning how to read was difficult. I wanted to take shortcuts. I wanted to go back to easy skimming.
But I learned how to read… and grew up.
Sometimes the troubles God sends us work that way, too. We want to avoid them. We want to get out of the pit. We want to have a solution now… quickly… easily.
But God has something in mind. Whatever we are enduring, He is teaching us maturity.
It is hard… but the result, after the fear of the troubles is gone, is peace, sufficiency, and maturity.
Fear not, then grow up.