I was recently helping my daughter with her Math homework.  She’s in the third grade and currently learning multiplication tables.  I was pretty good in Math though I remember how difficult multiplication tables were for me initially.  She was getting a little frustrated as the goal was to finish a timed test filled with questions.  To build her confidence I revealed I was the first person in my class to pass all those timed tests (it was true) and told her I could share some secrets with her so she could do the same.  Her eyes sparkled with excitement and that frustration was replaced with her beautiful smile.  We started by practicing doing the actual timed test while I watched her to see what she was doing.  Instantly I noticed she was glancing back at questions she’d already answered searching for the answer to her current problem so she wouldn’t have to figure it out again.  Once she failed to finish the test again I began telling her what I noticed.  She admitted to doing it.  I explained, “Baby, that’s slowing you down.  You have to quit looking back at what you’ve already done and concentrate on what’s right in front of you. You already know the answers.  Just answer it and move on.”  We chatted a few minutes longer about it and then she took the test again.  Not only did she pass the test the next go round but she passed it with a full minute to spare– and has passed two others since then.

Life is full of questions.  Situations come at us from all sides.  Things we don’t understand.  Things we don’t have answers to.  Things that seem beyond our control.  How should we react?  What should we do?  James 1:2-4 reminds us, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  Faith will never be produced by trials, but it will be tested by the trials we’re made to endure.  Romans 10:17 tells us where faith is produced as it states, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  The more we study and know God’s word, the stronger our faith becomes and the more solid our (what I call) “faith foundation” becomes.  The more we pray and spend intimate moments with Him, the better we know the heart of God and how to react when those situations come along.  If we’ve hidden the word of God in our hearts, we won’t have to keep looking back for the answers.  We will already know the answers and can react when the issue presents itself.

Closing remarks and encouragement:  It all boils down to our relationship with the Father.  Patience to wait on God for the answers is produced in greater fashion when we learn how to receive those trials in faith knowing that He is already at work in our favor.  Learning how to “Consider it all joy…” must become the response of our faith in the moment of the trial.  Patience doesn’t come quickly.  It’s like a flower that has to bloom.  But eventually, it will reveal itself and become a thing of beauty.  Chances are, in most situations, we already know the answers.  Quit looking back.  Just answer it and move on.  And if we don’t know the answers, that’s a sure sign we need to be studying more.

Be encouraged today, my friends!  I hope you all have a blessed week!