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James 1:2 says, “Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials.” “Seriously? I’m supposed to be joyful that my child just got run over by a drunk driver? That’s the last emotion I’m feeling. I’m devastated.” Actually, it would be cruel to tell a friend who just got a call from the doctor that he indeed does have stage three cancer in his lymph nodes that God wants him to rejoice because of this trial. Trials can be tragic, hurtful, grievous. Some trials are pretty easy, like your internet service just went down or you burned the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. But others are very hard.
Jesus faced the biggest trial any human being could possibly endure when He faced the agony of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. He wasn’t singing, “I have the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.” No, He was anguishing in His heart. He begged if possible not to have to go through dying on the cross. He suffered in His soul like no human ever did. We are told that for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2). What was the joy set before Him? It was not in the agony, but in the redemption of His people. The trial itself is not the joy; the joy is in knowing God has a purpose in the trial, regardless of how agonizing it might be.
A trial is anything that troubles you. If you are alive and breathing, you are going to face difficulties, or what God calls “trials.” The real question is how you are going to handle your trials. For most of us, trials are pretty small — like you’re all packed for vacation when you notice water dripping from under the motor. Or you’re already ten minutes late and there’s that sign: “Road Closed Ahead Detour.” Or a fellow worker is spreading rumors about you. Other trials are much heavier. You find out you have heart blockage and need open heart surgery. Or your son was arrested for drug dealing.
James is very aware that God’s people face all kinds of trials, so he wastes no time in dealing with why God brings them into our lives and how we need to face them. How you handle the trials in your life makes all the difference as to the kind of believer you are becoming. Every word in these three verses before us is weighty and helpful.
TRIALS AND YOUR ATTITUDE – vs. 2
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
James begins with “all joy.” Not some or a lot, but all. He starts us off with the call to our living faith as a faith radiating joy even through hard times. Jesus told us in John 15:11 He would leave His joy with us and our joy would be full. A living faith in Christ means you’re going to have joy in your life.
Then James applies this “all joy” principle to our trials. He says, “consider it all joy.” He doesn’t expect you to say, “Hallelujah, the doctor just called. I’ve got a brain tumor. Praise Jesus!” He doesn’t say, “Enjoy the trial.” He says to consider it all joy when you encounter trials.
Consider means take control of your thoughts. You don’t have control over your feelings, but you do have control over how you think. That’s what this word means. It means you take charge of your thoughts rather than letting the trial dictate your reactions. We are commanded to think about or consider everything God brings into our lives in a joyful way. What was Job thinking as he stood beside ten freshly dug graves of his children and confessed in his grief, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” How are you thinking about the trial you are in right now? Is there an element of joy in it? Or do you typically react with, “Poor me, nothing ever seems to work out for me.”
When trouble comes, James says to have an attitude, a mental posture of joy, of hope, of courage. Have thoughts full of God. Remind yourself that He is sovereign in your life and He makes sure everything that happens in your life is for His honor and your good. Look to God for His strength to put off worldly attitudes of fear and frustration toward trials so you are able to lead your mind to biblical attitudes of joy and peace because you see God in your trials. Notice three things in verse two.
These trials come at different times, but they do come. “Whenever” (NIV) means there is no time or age limit. So, they might be trials of teenagers, trials of young adults, of middle age, of men, of women, even of little children. They may come in the middle of the night or in full blaze of the sunshine. It doesn’t say, “If they come upon you.” No, they will come. It’s just a matter of “when.”
These trials come in all kinds of flavors, colors, sizes; in poikilois or various trials. Again, God made sure He said this so you couldn’t say, “Well, God works through trials, but not the trial I’m facing. It’s unique.” There’s no unique trial. First Corinthians 10:13 clearly says to every one of us: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man.” James says “various trials.” The same word is used in the Greek translation of Genesis 37:3 describing Joseph’s coat of many, various colors. God is sovereign over our trials and knows just what we need for our spiritual growth. He never makes a mistake. He never says, “Oops.”
But notice, you don’t go looking for these trials. “Hmm, I haven’t had a trial for a while. Guess I’d better go see what kind of trial I can work up.” No, it says when you “encounter” various trials. The same Greek word is used in Luke 10:30 of the man walking to Jericho who “fell” among thieves. Suddenly, with no warning, he was surrounded by these thieves. That’s the idea of “encounter.” God doesn’t tell you ahead of time that those trials are coming. You encounter them. They often come as complete surprises.
God didn’t tell R. C. Sproul that he and Vesta would be in that train wreck of the Sunset Limited at 3 AM in that dark Alabama bayou back in 1993. It was the largest Amtrak crash in history. Suddenly R. C. found himself flying through space and smashing in the opposite wall. His wife was strapped into her bed. They found their shoes and got out and were taken to a hospital called none other than Providence Hospital. Through that experience they encountered one of those various trails. R. C. wrote: “I understood that the invisible hand of Providence was involved in this ‘accident’ and it was one of those events that work together for good for those who love the Lord.” (The Invisible Hand, p. 155) Trials often come unexpectedly, but when they come, you can know God is in them and has a purpose for them.
And some of these trials can change your life completely. R. C. needed 15 years of physical therapy and his wife could never sleep again while on a train. Our hearts go out to some who suffer life-long disabilities. But you realize there is more to life than this world, right? You are here for only a brief moment; then you enter eternity. Days here, especially during trials, can seem long and hard. But viewed from eternity, the trials will fade and seem like a dream compared to the glory to come. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
So, God wants you and me to face every trial He brings into our lives with a hopeful mindset of joy, with confidence that God is in it for your good.
GOD’S PURPOSE FOR YOUR TRIALS – vs. 3
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
God wants you to know something. If you have placed your faith in Christ as your Savior and are God’s child, one of the greatest truths you can lay your teeth into is this. You are loved by a sovereign God who controls every one of those trials in your life for His glory and your good. Do you believe that? Do you? You must! Romans 8:28 assures you of this, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. First Peter 5:5-7 puts it like this: Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God – the “mighty hand of God” includes all the circumstances and people God brings into your life – and He will lift you up at the proper time – he lifted up Job, Joseph, Esther and Mordecai, Jesus!!! – casting all your anxiety and worry on Him because He cares for you — more than you can imagine.
God is using this trial to refine and strengthen your faith. The word “testing” was used of purifying gold and silver by fire. Trials reveal what is in our hearts. If God doesn’t bring these trials into our lives to expose our sins, we’d never change. Learn from Job. When everything is stripped away from us, will we still worship God? Job was able to utter, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). It’s easy to say, “Sure, I trust God” when everything is going our way – everybody’s healthy, the kids are doing well, the business is flourishing. But God may use afflictions to expose pockets of unbelief or resistance to God’s hand in our lives. Trouble may reveal that we are double-minded and not sure if we can trust God or really want to go God’s way. More of that next week.
God is using this trial to produce change in your life. That word “produces” pictures God at work in your inner being. It is present tense. There He is working on your soul, “zzzzzzzz, rrrrrip, bang, bang, bang,” chiseling, gouging, drilling, filing, chipping away! Romans 5:3 uses the same word, “tribulations produce endurance.” You are God’s project and He is taking His tools, namely the trials, and working off your sharp edges.
Occasionally I remove the blade from my lawnmower and take it into my shed, turn the grinder on, and mercilessly press that blade against the grinding wheel, zzzzzzzzzzz, sparks flying as I try to get a sharp edge on that blade. Ouch, ouch, ouch. That hurts. Job hurt. Joseph hurt. Jesus hurt. All the people in the Bible hurt. But God uses the trials to grind change into our lives. He is filing us down, removing the rough edges to make us more like His Son. But there is a specific product that God is developing in you.
God is using trials specifically to produce the godly quality of endurance! Endurance is that Greek compound word “hupo + meno.” It means hanging in there or staying there under the weight or pressure of a trial. The opposite is caving in, crumbling, quitting, turning back to that worldly, poor me, I’m a victim way of thinking. The trial stretches and strengthens you. God is growing your spiritual muscles to hang in there with great joy and not quit. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “There is nothing which so certifies the genuineness of a man’s faith as his patient endurance, his keeping on in spite of everything.” It’s good occasionally to read the biographies of the godly men and women who endured horrible persecution and martyrdom to get a good idea of what godly endurance really is.
ENDURANCE IS NECESSARY FOR YOUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH – vs. 4.
And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
God’s purpose in these difficulties is for your faith to grow and become mature and fully developed, to be all that God wants you to be – perfect and complete. You can’t bail out or turn angry or bitter because of your trials. Don’t cut God’s plan short. Imagine laying on the table for open heart surgery and the surgeon has your breastbone laid open and your heart is exposed and beating. Suddenly you wake up and decide you don’t want to go through with it so you stand up and walk away. What a mess you made!
Imagine if Joseph had bailed: “It’s too much, too tough, I’ve been mistreated. It’s not fair. I quit.” Joseph endured. He saw God in his trial and he revealed his thoughts when his brothers came and he assured them, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to bring about this present blessing” (Genesis 50:20).
Imagine if Job had bailed, cursed God, driven his pesty friends away, and ended his life in bitterness. We would never have the end of the story where God blessed him two-fold. Easy? No. Did he weep? Yes. Did he feel like ending it all? Probably. But through it all, he counted it all joy, he endured, and he saw God in his affliction. He believed that when God had tried him he would come forth as gold (Job 23:10). And he did. That’s the great thing about the Bible; God lets us see the end of some of these happenings.
One more. What if Jesus had cut it short? Hebrews 12:2 says for the joy set before Him
He endured the cross. Same word, hupomeno. He remained firm and continued the mission. What if He had said these things: “This is just too much. I’m not going through with it. This is too hard. Not Your will but Mine be done.” No, He never said those words. He let endurance have its perfect work and God raised Him from the dead as our Lord and Savior!
James gives us every reason to count it all joy when these trials come upon us. Let’s not react like the world reacts to hard times. Your situation may be really tough. You may not even know what to do next. But you do know this—that your loving, sovereign God is working in you through this trial. Live with that confidence. Remember, God isn’t nearly as interested in changing your circumstances as He is in changing you through your circumstances. And He has the wonderful goal of changing you more and more into the likeness of Christ. That’s what perfect and complete means.
Let these verses of James renew your thinking with truth and change your attitude about how you face the difficulties in your life. Put off self-centered, worldly reactions and put on humble, joyful, trusting, and enduring responses to the tough issues in your life. Above all, know God is using these trials to strengthen your living faith and help you grow to become more like Christ. May His name be glorified.