“Blessed is the one who remains steadfast under trial.” I don’t know about you, but James is one of those letters that never stops making me feel uncomfortable.

Trial is a very strong word, often translated tribulation. In the Bible it almost always refers to the troubles of this present age, not to a mysterious (and in my opinion imaginary) future event. In the midst of trial, James further tells us, we are to “count it all joy.” Somehow we are supposed to find peace in the midst of trouble. I don’t like it, but the truth is that’s usually where we grow. Why? Because that’s where we find God and dig ourselves deeper into him. The grace of God comes to us as we call upon him in our distress

Are you in trouble? The most important thing to know is that God has a plan. Our trials are not random events outside of his control. Where the enemy has attacked us and caused us harm and pain, we need to know how to work with God in it. What is he teaching us?

For the last eight years, I’ve been praying a very simple prayer: “Lord, open doors and close doors.” It all started with a time of major reset in our lives. We had transitioned from pastoral ministry to full time traveling and teaching. So it was a good time to pray this kind of prayer.

The beginning of Luke’s Gospel is taken up with the announcement of two significant births, John the Baptist and Jesus. These births are first proclaimed by the angel Gabriel. Such supernatural signs had not been seen since the days of the prophets. And so with this angelic pronouncement, Luke lays in place the foundations of the new Messianic age about to dawn.

Occasionally the Bible presents us with a puzzle. Matthew tells us the disciples couldn’t cast a demon out because of their “little faith” (Matt. 17:20). Then he adds something which appears to be a contradiction: “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed… nothing will be impossible for you.” But Jesus himself told us that the mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds on the earth. So first he says their problem was their small faith. Then he says you only need small faith to do the impossible.