Be Still And Know

James 5:11 We don’t know exactly what James’ readers were facing, but clearly it was tough for them to live as Christians. They needed to persevere. Amid all the temptations, distractions and persecution, they needed to hang in there for God. Job is a classic illustration of this. Everything went catastrophically wrong for him. He lost his children, his possessions and his health. He had the indignity of being struck with boils and his wife, seeing him sitting in the dust, scratching at his sores, exclaimed, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). But he wouldn’t. He put up not only with his suffering but also with his hopeless companions, whose misguided thinking added another crushing layer to his agonies. However, he didn’t give up. He was confident in God and, in the end, God rewarded him generously. We would love God to fix our difficult situations, and remove all our problems. But there are many times in life when God calls us simply to endure, promisi