“This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing to the “twelve tribes”; Jewish believers scattered abroad. Greetings! Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” James 1:1-4 (NLT)

Haiti is certainly going through troubling challenges today. It’s been really difficult to read the news from Haiti this past year. None of us, here in the U.S. or our brothers and sisters and those precious school children in Haiti, can avoid the various troubles in life, but we can and need to accept that God has allowed them for our good. We're to view them as opportunities for rejoicing in the work He's doing in our lives; challenging us so He can change us to better serve Him in this fallen world. But how do we keep the trials designed for our good from crushing us? I read a devotion from Chuck Swindoll recently and he shared four words that will help us answer the question of how to handle challenges. They are Consider, Know, Ask and Endure.

These four words have the power to change everything. We Consider that God has a purpose in our troubles. We Know He's cultivating character and motivating maturity. We Ask for wisdom to see beneath the surface of the trials and challenges. And lastly, we Endure through the strength that comes from Him. That's how we handle troubles.

Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

May God be with you,

Jay