Good morning dearly beloved!

James 1:2-3 (NKJV) says,

• My brethren, COUNT IT ALL JOY when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Did you know that two people can go through exactly the same circumstance and see the situation completely different? The overcoming person will see every trial as an opportunity to apply the Word of God and come out with a testimony of victory. The person with a defeated mindset will see the trial as yet another problem to struggle through in life.

A victorious-minded person never sees tests and trials as problems – they see them as opportunities to grow. Other people looking at them may think they are going through a hard time, but they do not see it that way!

God’s will for every believer is that every trial be turned into an opportunity to bring increase to you in some way. He wants you to come out of every trial with an advantage. It is never God’s will that the devil succeed against you.

So, when you are walking in true fellowship with the Father, following His plan and purpose for your life, you can face every negative situation with complete confidence. You can be assured that God will turn the tables as you exercise your faith in His Word.

Romans 8:31-32 (NKJV) says,

• What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all other things?

See, it is always God’s will that you turn each trial you face into a testimony of victory.

Revelation 12:10 says,

• And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony…

We can be comforted by these words from 1 Corinthians 10:13 (AMPC),

• For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.

So, when you accept the fact that God plans for you are to benefit and increase you in every negative situation, you can face your trials with joy. You can walk through anything with joy, knowing that the outcome will be a testimony to the goodness of God.

“Father, I pray that as my readers walk by faith, they can be confident that You work out every trial and situation for their good. What Satan meant for evil, You, Lord, mean for good. I ask that You help them to walk in complete and total victory, knowing that they are called the head and not the tail, above only and never beneath, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Counting it all joy,

Lisa Gordon

Jesus City Church