My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. –James 1: 2-4, (NKJV)

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. –Philippians 4:6 (NKJV)

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I’d say that I didn’t fully understand the words pressing or challenge until I moved to Berlin. It is in Berlin that I experienced the love and grace of God through being pressed, prodded and challenged. It was through often-unexplainable situations that God had me in the crucible to refine my character, and to make me more like His Son. Can you relate to being in the crucible in life, where you had to face unexplainable situations, but when you look back on that challenging season, you see how God was working to grow you?

There are seasons in life when we’re in the unexplainable, where we’re being pressed, where situation after situation that comes makes us exhausted, and where we can’t understand why we’re being pressed on every side.

 The title of today’s post is “A Built Up Immunity.” When I say this I‘m referring to the trust, faith, and patience in God that is increased over time, when we go from challenge to challenge in life. It’s like what the writer of James says, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience…. so that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” When we face trials that make us cling to God through prayer and reading the Word, we find ourselves stronger. We find ourselves with an immunity of sorts to withstand future challenges.

“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” –Proverbs 24: 10 (ESV)

It is in the valley of our lives where God is doing His most redemptive work. It was when David was running for his life from Saul, facing unexplainable situations that God had David in the crucible to refine his character so that he could be prepared to be king. In the Psalms we see David pleading, praying, and trusting God in that season of his life. By the time David became king, he knew who he was in God, and he knew what it meant to pray and trust God in the unexplainable.

Sometimes we think life’s challenges are from the evil one, but some of life’s challenges are from God. He allows people and various situations to press us, like the pressing of grapes that make the finest wine. He wants us to be like the finest wine, refined and strong to handle anything that life may throw at us. He wants us to be immune so that when later challenges come we have the strength to withstand and not faint or give way. May we resolve to trust God in the pressing and prodding challenges of life!

 Happy Friday!