Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4
Two months ago, the AC system at the church where I serve malfunctioned, causing the water pan to overflow, leading to thousands of dollars of damage to the ceilings and walls throughout the sanctuary. When Trustee Raeford took me to the attic to see the damage, I saw that the water pan was still full of water. I volunteered to help drain the water from the pan. After removing four buckets of water, he told me that I could stop because he would come back later that day to remove more water if necessary.
Unbeknown to me, this exercise was full of life’s lessons that I am now using for my own personal use. As it happened, this past weekend, the AC system in my house stop functioning. I called a repair service to come to fix it. The technician told me that I would have to wait until Tuesday. However, he said that I could do some diagnostics to determine the cause of the problem. He asked me if there was a power outage over the weekend. I told him yes. Then he told me the unit might need to be reset. When I went to the attic to reset the unit, I saw that the water pan was full of water and needed to be drained. I removed about nine buckets of water, reset the unit, and the AC started to work.
That experience taught me three valuable lessons. First, be willing and available to help others in their times of hardship. If I did not help Trustee Raeford drain water from the pan at the church, I would not have known about the damage this can cause and the need to do an ongoing spot check of the unit in my house to ensure the pan does not overflow.
The second lesson I learned is that sometimes a difficulty or inconvenience can be a warning sign to a bigger problem. If the AC did not stop working on Saturday, I would not have gone to the attic to reset it, and the pan could have overflowed, causing thousands of dollars of damages. I believe God made the AC stopped working so I can go in the attic to check on the unit.
That is why James says to consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds. To be honest, my wife and I were very annoyed when the AC stopped working on Saturday because the house is only three years old. Technically, we should not have to worry about the AC. However, after I saw the amount of water in the pan, I thanked God that the AC malfunctioned.
Perhaps you are going through adversity and cannot understand why God has not delivered you yet. May I encourage you to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the purpose of your trial to you! I am confident that every trial has a purpose. Therefore, we should rejoice whenever we face trials of many kinds because we know that “all things will work together for our good,” even when the experience is not so good.
The third lesson I learned is to make sure that I have extra warrantee for the AC. None of us knows when trouble will knock on our doorpost. What we do know is that life is full of trouble. Therefore, we need God to warrantee our lives so we can persevere in times of trouble. Though my AC is working, I enrolled in the warrantee plan with Duke Energy just in case something happened. Repairing an AC can be quite expensive. The warranty gives me peace of mind that I will not have to pay the full cost to repair or replace the AC if it breaks down.
God provides the best warranty for the vicissitudes of life. Psalm 34:19 offers us one of the many aspects of God’s warrantee. It is unwise to go through life without God’s warrantee. Duke Energy’s warrantee costs money. However, God’s warrantee is free to all who surrender their lives to God through Jesus Christ. Do not wait for your back to be against the proverbial wall before realizing your need for God. Today is a good day to take hold of the warrantee offers by the Almighty.
Prayer- Blessed Lord, you are the guarantor of our lives. Thank you for sending us warning signs for more difficult burdens to come.