“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

God loves you.

When God thought of eternity, he could not imagine spending eternity without you in it. So God sent his only Son to die on the cross and rise from the dead to make a way for sinners to become heirs of the kingdom of God.

God absolutely loves you.

No matter what you are going through today, let this be your constant reminder.

When life’s circumstances make you feel as though the world is against you, remember the One who is on your side.

The voices in this world tell you, you are not enough, you don’t have enough. God reminds you, you are more than enough.

C. S. Lewis is absolutely right when he wrote, “He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, he would have done no less.”

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105)

When things are confusing, when times are dark, when there seems to be no end in sight for our turbulent times what are you supposed to do?

How are we supposed to find our way through the haze of confusion?

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

Elizabeth Elliot wrote, “The only thing that keeps me stable and settled in these days of uncertainty is the absolute dependability of God’s word.” And she’s absolutely right.

God’s word shines a light in the darkness.

God’s word shows us the way we should live.

God’s word shows us the way, the truth, and the life.

Christian, are you regularly in God’s word? Without God’s truth we are hopelessly lost.

“My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy” (James 1:2).

Hmmm.

Trials — nothing but joy?

Hmmm.

When have you ever thought, “Oh Joy!” when you were going through a hard time? How is that even possible? What in the world does this even mean?

First, notice the Bible doesn’t say be happy whenever you face trials. That’s impossible. What we’re called to is to “consider it nothing but joy.” As you read the rest of the paragraph in James 1, it fills you in on why the Bible says that. I invite you to do exactly that. But I want to point out some other things about this verse.

Notice it says that we are to consider trials as joy. It’s not going to feel joyful. It’s not going to feel good. But that we are to take hold of our emotions and thoughts and we are to subject them to Christ, and because of Christ, consider our trials as nothing but joy.

Why is that?

That brings us to the second word I want to highlight: “whenever”.

Notice that the Bible assumes Christians will go through hard times. It doesn’t say, if. It says whenever. Hard times, trials, difficulties, hardships are going to happen.

Trials and hard times fall on all human beings. That is universal. But there is a huge difference for the Christian when trials happen. When a Christian goes through trials and hard times, Christians never endure that alone. For Christ is with us. God never promised we wouldn’t face storms. But God does promise that he would be our peace in the midst of the storm. We are never alone. God is always with us.

And, that makes all the difference in the world.