God wants us to go from strength to strength. He wants us to go from glory to glory. We sang about it a few minutes ago.

He wants us to go higher and higher. But sometimes when we're trying to get higher, we're trying to go to more strength.

We're trying to get through. We find that we're going from struggle to struggle.

See, God doesn't want us to go from struggle to struggle. His intention is for us to go from strength to strength.

And can I tell you today, we all face this challenge. One day we're doing good. The next day we're struggling. We're trying to get out of a situation.

We're trying to get to another situation. Maybe if you're struggling today, you need to hear this one word. Rest. Just rest.

See, the truth is, we're going to get to where God wants us to be if we're honoring Him. If we put Him first place, if we take time to get His plans and His words in our heart and in our life, we're not going to get to where we need to be any quicker if we worry, if we struggle or if we're frustrated.

So today, I just want to say if you find yourself struggling, rest. Rest in God's peace. Abide in His joy. That's where you're going to find your strength.

That is where you are going to endure and find great persistence. God is always trying to get us higher. So we're always going to be facing something in our life.

Listen to what it says in James 1-4. It says, consider it all joy when you go through trials of many kinds. Many kinds of variety of trials coming from different places.

We're to count it all joy when we face trials. See, trials is what causes us to struggle. But God is saying, count it all joy.

In this version that I'm reading, it says consider it all joy. See, our trials were never meant to decrease us. They were meant to increase us.

They were not meant to tear our faith down. They were meant to build our faith up. Trials were meant to produce perseverance in us. See, that scripture goes on to say that we won't be lacking anything.

That there may be a trial of our faith, but it's going to lead us to good. It's not going to tear us down. The key to counting it all joy is joy.

The joy of the Lord is our strength. We don't find the joy in the trial. We don't find the joy in the pain.

We are supposed to find the joy in the God who is the source of all strength. The God who is in control of it all.

When we are walking through a difficulty, we are supposed to look for God, not look at the difficulty, we're to count it all joy.

Happiness comes and goes. Excitement is here. Vacations come. They go. But joy is supposed to abide in us.

Joy lives in us. Joy is a gift from Almighty God. Sometimes when we're going through a trial or a test, we think this isn't joyful.

I can tell you joy is not the word that comes to me when I'm facing a difficulty. I just have to admit it right now.

I think the Scripture should say, when you get through the difficulty, that's when you can throw your hands up in the air. And you can say, finally, I can have some joy. I can have some relief.

But see, the Scripture doesn't say that. It says, we are to consider it all joy.

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