The Gift of Troubles

Have you ever seen the movie, The Ultimate Gift, or read the book by Jim Stovall ?


If you haven't, then I highly recommend that you do!


The book and movie are about a privileged young man, who upon his grandfather's death expects to receive a cash inheritance. However, his grandfather had something else in mind. In His will, the old man left his grandson a set of challenges that he calls "gifts." These gifts are all a journey to the ultimate gift, and the journey changes the young man's life forever.


As I was reading scripture and some other blog posts today, I was reminded of the story, The Ultimate Gift. As we go through life as children of God, many times we do not get what we expect or ask for, but all I firmly believe that all God's gifts are good even if they don't seem good to us at the moment.
Jennifer Saake, author of the book Hannah's Hope posted this on one of her blogs:


When God Says No

In her post, Jennifer expresses her belief that pain is a gift...one that drives us to God. She also explains that God is thinking of our best interests when we ask for something good and he says no. This made me think of the first chapter of James:

 ² Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. ³ For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

 ⁵ If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. ⁶ But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

James 1:1-8 NLT

When troubles come our way, or when prayers and requests aren't answered as we expect, we have a choice. We can either breakdown and give up, or we can see our troubles as the gift they are...a gift from God to help us grow closer to Him and to help us become the "overcomers" that He made us to be!

If you will notice in the scriptures above, there is one gift (besides salvation) that God will never refuse to give us if we have unwavering faith, and that gift is wisdom. If we will ask for wisdom and believe that we will receive it, then we will be gifted with an abundance of it. If you ask me, as long as we have His wisdom and guidance, we can get through any troubles and truly count them as joyous gifts from the Father!

¹⁶ So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. ¹⁸ He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

James 1:16-18 NLT

Let it be our goal to receive all of God's gifts as beautiful treasures from our Creator, who knows us and loves more than we could ever imagine!