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When God Tests Your Grit: Endure Trials with Purpose · Called to Build

• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: When God tests your grit, endure trials with purpose.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let perseverance finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: James 1, 2 to 4.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: The desolate place is a divine classroom.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Most people try to avoid the desolate places.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Those seasons where life feels barren, progress stalls, and prayers echo without reply.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: But if Scripture teaches us anything, it's this desolate places are God's training grounds.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: James 1, 2-4 frames trials not as punishments, but as refining fires that shape perseverance, maturity, and spiritual wholeness.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: For me, Dodge City, Kansas was one such place.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to go.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: The smell of cattle feed lots hit me 20 minutes before I even reached town.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I had dreams of retiring in law enforcement, of climbing the ranks, maybe even running for sheriff one day.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: But God had other plans, and they began with breaking mine.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Step one, recognize that grit is grown, not given.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Grit is the resolve to keep going when everything in you wants to quit.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't come pre-installed, it's cultivated through trials, frustrations, and repeated surrender.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: In Dodge City, I went from respected officer to outsider.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: My accolades meant little to my peers, and I quickly became disillusioned.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But that emotional pressure wasn't wasted.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was shaping something deeper.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: God was teaching me to obey even when appreciation was absent.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: He was building grit.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Instruction.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: When God places you in a situation that feels beneath your potential or outside your comfort, ask, what is he trying to grow in me?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is often endurance.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Step two, obedience is often uncomfortable.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I tried every door to get out.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Other departments, lateral transfers, even returning to Texas.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing opened.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: What I learned in that forced stillness was that obedience isn't about comfort.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's about alignment with God's purpose.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know it then, but my time as a deputy in that dusty cattle town was the foundation for my future as a pastor, entrepreneur, and missionary.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: God wasn't punishing me, he was positioning me.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Instruction Don't confuse delay with denial.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: If God has called you to stay in a hard place, he's doing something you cannot yet see.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Your yes in that place is sowing seeds for a future harvest.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Step three, emotional endurance must be strengthened like a muscle.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Endurance isn't built in ease.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's forged in emotional drought, in unanswered questions, in God, why am I still here?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I reached a point where I lost the passion for law enforcement, felt isolated from my peers, and even doubted whether I had forfeited my calling.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: But God used those tensions to deepen my faith, sharpen my discernment, and anchor me in his word.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: What I thought was a dry place became sacred ground.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Instruction.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Learn to sit with your emotions without letting them control your decisions.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Process your pain with God.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let endurance finish its work.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Step four.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Look for the hidden fruit of the desolate place.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: During that season, I became a Sunday school teacher, a mentor, and eventually a preacher.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't have chosen that path, but God did.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I also became a father my son could follow, not just in action, but in faith.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: When the sheriff's badge lost its luster, God was handing me a shepherd's staff.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: That shift began in the place I least wanted to be.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Instruction Look for unexpected opportunities to serve, teach, or encourage others in your desolate place.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: These small assignments may be the very soil of your next season.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Conclusion.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let perseverance finish its work.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: James 1 4 says, Let perseverance finish its work.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the key.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't quit before God completes what he's doing.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Grit, obedience, and emotional endurance aren't just survival skills, they're kingdom tools.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in a place that smells wrong, feels wrong, or seems beneath you, look again.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: You may be standing on holy ground.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Your desolate place is not a dead end.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a proving ground.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let God finish what he started.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: When the work is complete, you won't just be stronger, you'll be whole.