Dear Friends,
As the old spiritual says, “All God’s children got trouble!” We are, after all, fallen men and women in a fallen world. But when the trouble comes, how should we look at it? Today’s devotional should help. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,
John Janney

• James 1:2-4 (ESV)

  2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

“A thousand good things come to us by the way of suffering and reproach. I think the sweetest letters which God ever sends to his children are done up in black-edged envelopes. You will find, in many of those bright envelopes of his, some choice silver mercies; but if you want a great banknote of grace, it must come to you in the mourning envelope. It is when the Lord covers the heavens with clouds that he sends the showers of blessing upon the earth. Be glad of the clouds for the sake of the rain.” [Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit LI, (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1905), p. 368]