Stress has a Useful Purpose (Part 2)

As we see in James 1:3-8, for the Christian, God uses those stressful events, events not of our doing, for His purpose and for our profit. In these verses we see four useful purposes of stress: Stress produces endurance, maturity, prayer, and faith. Let me briefly explain each. If you ever ran a marathon, you know that you cannot do it overnight, it is a process that you work at, the same can be said about our endurance or patience in this life. God allows stress to build up and exercise that inner quality or strength, in order for us to make it through the whole race called life.
We also see in verse 4, stress produces maturity. The more someone has been through, the more qualified they they are to help and give counsel to those who have yet to face that valley. God is not satisfied with a halfway job. He wants all Christians to be a perfect work, in other words, He wants mature children. In verses 5-6, we see that stress produces a more perfect and complete prayer life. It is true for most Christians, when we get hammered with stressful life events, we usually fall on our knees in prayer. How many people, after 9/11, began to pray, praying in places and at times they were not use to praying at? God allows stress to help develop our prayer life. Last, stress produces faith (1:6). What the writer is saying here is, "Don't let stress toss you around, but rather let it strengthen your faith." Lack of faith is a sign of immaturity and instability; and God uses the stressful events of life to strengthen our faith and dependence on Him. Romans 8:28 is very true, God will work all things (yes, even the bad ones, and even our unseen stresses), for good for those who love Him. Keep walking close to Christ.