Take joy in suffering | Rapp Report Daily 0154 | Striving for Eternity

Welcome to the Rapid Bull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications.

This is a ministry of striving for eternity. Nobody likes to suffer, however, as Christians we must recognize that suffering does serve a purpose.

We as human beings will try to avoid any kind of suffering, any kind of pain, anything that makes us uncomfortable, and yet we end up seeing that James says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

Why? Verse 3 of James 1 says, For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

You see, what we end up seeing is that we don't like to struggle. We don't like those trials. We don't like when things come into our life that make us uncomfortable.

Those are opportunities to be more like Christ. It is something that can help in the advancement of our sanctification.

That process where we're made more and more like Christ, in the image of Christ, set apart from the world, and more like God.

However, the more we avoid the very things that will sanctify us, and kind of hurt sometimes, just because we don't like that uncomfortableness, the more we will be like the world, and the less like Christ.

As Christians, we are to be more like Christ, and less like the world. And sometimes that can be painful.

So what we have to do is not run away from those trials and struggles, but actually endure them, run into them in a sense, looking for what