A Cross Before a Crown
Week Twelve
March 16, 2025
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
— James 1:2-4 (KJV)
We don’t always understand what God is up to. Sometimes our troubles come upon us like an unwelcome late-night visitor. How inconvenient, we think. Or there are those trials we come upon like a bear-sized pothole – we fall into them with a great jolt. They can be many, they are diverse, and they usually surprise. But given what the bible says about these tempestuous testings, we should be rejoicing in them, considering it all joy as the apostle James wrote.
But we don’t always, do we? We might approach our hardships in one of two ways. You may see two options before you (pick which suits your personality best): fight or flight. But there is a third option. You want to be more like Jesus, don’t you? Deep in your heart of hearts you sense that you were created to image him, to reflect the glorious “who he is” all over the earth. It’s what we were created for.
Sanctification by fire is no easy road. There are no shortcuts, there is no run or resist option on that path. I mentioned a third option, not entirely appealing to our flesh nature, and that would be to let the patience which is being produced by our testings have her way, producing in us what she desires to produce: perfection as James puts it. Being grown in us is the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
We don’t always see what God is up to. As William Cowper wrote in his poem, “Light Shining out of Darkness”,
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
The Master Potter forms us in the furnace of adversity and affliction. No lesson is learned as well as the gilded lesson forged in the heat of hardship. Our testings teach us. And they prune us of those weighty dead things that hang off of us – the grumpy disposition, the propensity towards dangerous desires, the ungrateful heart. But they also supply to our self solid character, the desirable adjunct of perfection. If favor is leaning in to show benefit, then our trials are God’s favor on us.
An excerpt from Puritan prayer, “The Grace of the Cross” gives us hope in the trial:
Thou hast also appointed a cross for me to take up and carry,
a cross before Thou givest me a crown.
There is no crown before the cross. Now Lord, give us hope; that we may know the end of our trial is beauty and strength – a multifaceted reflection of the glory of you.
Monday
March 17, 2025
Although he was a son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered.
— Hebrews 5:8 (NET)
There is no way around it — in embracing sonship we embrace suffering. Jesus did. As the Son, he learned obedience through suffering. Learning. Suffering. The two are tightly tethered. In fact, in the Greek, the two words could be mistaken for each other: he learned (ἔμαθεν - emathen), he suffered (ἔπαθεν - epathen). The writer of Hebrews has taken a grammatical opportunity to show us the critical connection between learning obedience and suffering as a son. Your suffering has not disqualified you from sonship, it has marked you for it. In fact, well-learned suffering has qualified you to walk the road your Lord did. Embrace it.
Does it strike you odd that Jesus learned something? Why or why not? How does this encourage you?
What have you suffered under that has caused you to embrace Jesus and turn from the love of the world? What does obedience look like to you?
Tuesday
March 18, 2025
I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
— Psalm 57:2 (NIV)
The pressure of trials in our lives does not mean God’s purpose for us is on hold or in danger of failing. We all have our cave times like David – times of waiting in the darkness. But it is out of the silence and solitude that we break the stillness of darkness with our cry out to the one who will accomplish what he started in us. We are diamonds in the making and like diamonds, we are uniquely formed under intense pressure and heat over time. In our waiting, life comes out of death.
How do other translations (besides the NIV or ESV) translate “fulfills his purpose”? What color does this add to the meaning of this scripture for you?
Does reading these other translations widen your understanding of God and his work in you? How?
Wednesday
March 19, 2025
Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
— John 13:7 (BSB)
We live in the “now”, in the foggy, low visibility now. But in the “later” Jesus has promised that clarity will come. I’m sure you’ve heard it said, hindsight is twenty-twenty. It’s similar to that. Jesus is fueling our trust by asking us to be content with his explanation, “later you will understand.” (Try plugging that into the GPS: “Later”). If that kind of trust feels reckless to you, know this — God’s great love and enduring faithfulness are the guard rails on either side of this snaking road you’re hurtling down. You don’t need to understand to be safe.
What is so difficult about the road between now and later? What could help you navigate it?
In your experience, how have you seen God work through the span between now and later? What did he end up accomplishing?
Thursday
March 20, 2025
I know that God is on my side. (this I know, that God is for me.)
— Psalm 56:9 (NET)
You may not understand the “why” of what you are going through (or even the “how” of getting through it), but one thing you can know — God is with you in the trial. The “when” may be begging for a timeline and the “what” may be looking for the outcome. But know this, the “who” over everything is the same “who” that formed you and knows you. Who is this “who” who is on your side? His name is Jesus and his name means salvation for you.
Does it need to feel like God is with you in the trial for it to be true? Would it be easier or better to have those feelings?
Relate a time that you were journeying through a difficult experience and God mercifully gave you proof of his presence.
Friday
March 21, 2025
For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
— Hebrews 12:11 (NASB)
Picture this, you are walking a forest path. Before you is a fork in the road with two dirt paths, one branching left and the other branching right. In the middle of the fork is a large sign that reads TRIAL. Pointing left is an arrow-shaped sign that has the word, ESCAPE written on it. Below it, pointing right, is another arrow-shaped sign that reads, GOD’S PURPOSE. Which path do you take? The path you yield your heart to will yield its fruit. One path is governed by your hand, the other by his. May I suggest you choose his hand? Trust me, it is far kinder than your own.
Is the choice to endure the trial or run from it a one-time only decision? Does God continue working in your life regardless of your decisions?
What does God’s discipline and training in your life reveal about his heart towards you? What does his discipline and training lead to?