Based on The Fruit of the Spirit Study, by LGG / W2D2
Today’s Road Map for the Journey: James 1:2-4; SOAP: James 1:2
2Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
James 1:2 NLT
I would venture to say that none of us delight in trials (troubles and suffering). However, in this life, they will come, and when they do, they are meant to be useful teaching tools that produce endurance and perfect us in godliness. It is not only helpful to remember this truth but to embrace it so that we do not run from the troubles that come into our lives.
So, how are you when trials and troubles disrupt your life? Do you welcome them with open arms, seeing them as opportunities for great joy? Or are you prone to grumble and avoid them at all costs? Or does your reaction vary depending on the type of trouble? Not finding your favorite travel mug might be a problem; however, not finding your car keys is a much bigger situation, often affecting not just you, but your kids’ transportation or a meeting at work. From the most incidental trial to a seemingly insurmountable problem to a full-blown catastrophe, James encourages his readers to see them all as opportunities for great joy. But – how and why?
How? How are we to rejoice or count our troubles as opportunities for joy? We are not told exactly how, but yet it is inferred with these three words: “Because you know…” and the ones that follow: “when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow…” We can because we know. What/who do we know that will help us see our troubles as pure joy? We know God; we know He is faithful, loving, kind, and trustworthy… which means if our faith is being tested, we can trust that He has a purpose, and it is for our good, not our harm. James quickly defines why our faith is tested by explaining that when it is tested, our endurance has a chance to grow, ultimately making us and our relationship with God more mature and complete.
So, James says that when a trial or hardship comes our way, we should label that moment as joyful because it will test our faith. By definition, a trial creates a moment where we don’t know how things will work out. A trial wrecks our plans. A trial takes away our ability to see the clear path to getting what we think will make us happy. It is in those moments that we make life’s most critical choices. Either we will decide, “If God let this happen to me, I will not trust Him. If He will not prevent days like this, I will find someone else to trust.” Or, the struggle will push us to turn to God for more help, to trust more deeply that He is with us and for us, to believe that He will carry us through.
When we choose to trust Him, He provides. Our endurance—the ability to keep trusting Him while trials continue unresolved—grows. And since our faith is the most important thing to our God, that is worth rejoicing.
Bibleref.com / James 1:3
It should be noted that “counting it all joy” does not mean jumping up and down with cheers that our tire is flat or the doctor’s report is bad. It does, however, include/require trusting God to know the situation and to help us through the troubles that will come. It means fixing our eyes on Him and not the problem. After all, our problems generally prompt statements like: “I can’t do this…” “I don’t know how I’m going to do this…” and/or a load of others, including: “Why me?” However, when we switch our minds from the problem to God, the One who can help us do ‘it’ and the One who knows the way and the why ~ He fills us with His peace (Isa 26:3). God not only has all of the answers and strength we need; He has given us the answer to the ‘why’ through the words of Paul: ‘because the testing of our faith produces endurance, v3’ which leads to a ‘healthy and mature faith/relationship with God, v4 ‘. As Bibleref.com points out, and I have found to be true in my own experience: “trials test our faith. When we keep trusting God through the trials, our faith in Him grows. From God’s perspective, our growing faith in Him is far more important than not experiencing hard things.1“
“Trials test our faith. When we keep trusting God through the trials, our faith in Him grows. From God’s perspective, our growing faith in Him is far more important than not experiencing hard things.”
Bibleref.com
Prayer Response
Father, I confess that I don’t enjoy when troubles and trials come my way, nor do I like it when they plague my children, family, or friends. Yet You have faithfully taught me that I never walk through them alone. You faithfully hold me up with Your victorious right hand and guide me through them. You have taught me to refocus my mind, to trust You, to call out to You, to look for You, to depend on You; and through all of this You have strengthened my faith and deepened my relationship with You. I am forever grateful and filled with joy knowing that Your purposes are good, trustworthy, and true ~ whether in times of trouble or peace, and in this I find JOY! Amen💜
Worship Response
Reflection and Application
What trial in your life right now could God be using to develop perseverance, character, and hope in you?
The More We Know
Consider it pure joy. That’s a hard truth to swallow when you feel like your life is falling apart. If we are honest, most of us read those words from James and think, “easier said than done.”
Consider it joy when I face trials? When the diagnosis comes? When my marriage is struggling? When the finances fall apart? When the thing I prayed hardest for doesn’t happen?
James isn’t being dismissive of our pain. He isn’t telling us to pretend everything is fine or paste a smile over our heartbreak. He is pointing us toward something deeper, a joy that is forged not found. A joy that is produced through the very trials we would never choose for ourselves.
The testing of our faith, James tells us, produces perseverance. And perseverance, when it has finished its work, produces maturity, completeness, and wholeness that cannot be manufactured any other way. There are no shortcuts to becoming the woman God has called you to be.
Please know that God is not wasting your hard seasons. He is using them. They serve a greater purpose. Every trial you walk through is an opportunity for your faith to be tested and strengthened. Every painful season is a classroom where God is developing something in you that could not be developed any other way. The woman who comes out on the other side of a hard season with her faith intact is a woman who has been refined and made stronger. That is not an accident. It is God intentionally, painstakingly working in your life.
This is why joy is possible in the middle of trials. It is not because the trial is good but because God is good. He is at work in the middle of it. When we trust this truth, joy becomes possible.
You are not forgotten in your trial. You are being formed. Keep going. Better days are ahead. That’s God’s promise.
Love God Greatly / Fruit of the Spirit Journal / p 71 digital
- James 4 commentary ↩︎
