August 4th, 2026
by Rev. Kevin C Benton
by Rev. Kevin C Benton
Day 2: The Test Worth Going Through
Reading: James 1:2-4
Devotional:
James does not tell you to feel happy about trials. He tells you to count them as joy, meaning make a deliberate decision to recognize what God is doing even when you cannot feel it. There is a difference between feeling joy and choosing to count something as joy. Counting something as joy is a deliberate act of faith, not a manufactured emotion. It means you choose to believe that God is at work even when the circumstances do not feel good. The testing of your faith produces patience, which is another word for endurance, perseverance, and the ability to keep walking under pressure. God does not waste what you surrender to Him. If you spend your trial complaining, isolating, or running back to what He delivered you from, you risk walking through the fire without receiving what the fire was meant to produce. But if you bring the pressure to Jesus, He can use what pressed you to produce something lasting in you. You are not just going through it. God is growing you through it. A grape does not become wine until it is pressed. An olive does not release oil until it is crushed. The very anointing you carry has been developed through the pressure you have survived. Stop asking only why this is happening to you. Start asking what God is doing in you through it.
Personal Reflection:
Looking back at a past season of pressure, what did God produce in you through it that could not have come any other way and that you would not trade today?
Practical Application:
Spend five minutes in prayer today, specifically surrendering your current trial to God. Don’t ask Him to remove a current trial but ask Him to reveal what He is building in you through it Tell Him you trust that He does not waste pressure when you surrender it to Him.
Reading: James 1:2-4
Devotional:
James does not tell you to feel happy about trials. He tells you to count them as joy, meaning make a deliberate decision to recognize what God is doing even when you cannot feel it. There is a difference between feeling joy and choosing to count something as joy. Counting something as joy is a deliberate act of faith, not a manufactured emotion. It means you choose to believe that God is at work even when the circumstances do not feel good. The testing of your faith produces patience, which is another word for endurance, perseverance, and the ability to keep walking under pressure. God does not waste what you surrender to Him. If you spend your trial complaining, isolating, or running back to what He delivered you from, you risk walking through the fire without receiving what the fire was meant to produce. But if you bring the pressure to Jesus, He can use what pressed you to produce something lasting in you. You are not just going through it. God is growing you through it. A grape does not become wine until it is pressed. An olive does not release oil until it is crushed. The very anointing you carry has been developed through the pressure you have survived. Stop asking only why this is happening to you. Start asking what God is doing in you through it.
Personal Reflection:
Looking back at a past season of pressure, what did God produce in you through it that could not have come any other way and that you would not trade today?
Practical Application:
Spend five minutes in prayer today, specifically surrendering your current trial to God. Don’t ask Him to remove a current trial but ask Him to reveal what He is building in you through it Tell Him you trust that He does not waste pressure when you surrender it to Him.
Posted in Daily Devotion
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