Trusted with Challenges
Have you ever contemplated the honor it must have been for Mary and Joseph to be trusted as the parents of Jesus? I'd venture to say most of us have. During Christmas I often consider that with which God entrusted Mary and Joseph, not the least of which was a lifetime of challenges. I can’t say with absolute certainty what the most difficult challenge was for Mary and Joseph while parenting the Messiah, but I believe there were a few:
Talk about a lot to worry over! Yet, God knew that Mary and Joseph could be trusted with these challenges. That is perhaps the greatest testimony of this young teenage couple – God trusted them with challenges that would cause most of us to buckle. For the next few weeks, I want to discuss some of these challenges in detail. But I leave you with this appeal: consider the challenges you are facing in this season of your life, thank God that he has trusted you with those challenges, and ask him what it is he wants to produce in you through them.
James encourages his readers in James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
I pray you find the peace of God in your struggles and the purpose of God through your struggles.
With much love,
Bryan
- The feeling of unworthiness.
- The worry of doing something wrong.
- The fear of being young, inexperienced parents.
- The anxiety of making sure nothing happened to him (the need to be overprotective).
- The knowledge that their son was perfect, they were not, yet they were supposed to parent him well.
- The ever-present realization that they had to be very careful who they told and always wondering if it’s okay to tell.
- The nagging sense of “Am I doing enough? Am I doing a good job? I wish I could provide more and give him a better life. Why do we have to raise him in Nazareth of all places?”
- Living with the stigma of a presumed illegitimate child.
- And probably many more.
Talk about a lot to worry over! Yet, God knew that Mary and Joseph could be trusted with these challenges. That is perhaps the greatest testimony of this young teenage couple – God trusted them with challenges that would cause most of us to buckle. For the next few weeks, I want to discuss some of these challenges in detail. But I leave you with this appeal: consider the challenges you are facing in this season of your life, thank God that he has trusted you with those challenges, and ask him what it is he wants to produce in you through them.
James encourages his readers in James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
I pray you find the peace of God in your struggles and the purpose of God through your struggles.
With much love,
Bryan
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