James Chapter 1 verses 2 – 4 says:
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Trial will come in life. We know that they will come because verse 2 above tells us “when” they come, not “if” they come.
We can’t avoid trials, but we can determine how we face them.
Trials are by nature difficult. But it is our attitude towards our trials that determines greatly how we progress through them. Further, our attitude towards how we view our trials determines what comes as a result of them, in our lives.
That is why the Apostle James writes “consider it all joy”. How you view your trial is critical to what you are going to take out of it.
The person who is on the course of perfecting and completing their faith (verse 4) is the person who can look at their trial and respond joyfully.
But how do we look at our trials and get joyful about it?
“Don’t you know the pain?”
“Don’t you get the suffering I am in?”
“Don’t you understand the stress I am under?”
“Don’t you see what I am going through God??”
These are all common, natural responses. But the person pursuing the perfection and the completion of their faith understands we need to hold fire on our emotions, because the Word of God tells us to consider it ALL JOY.
How do we consider it all joy to face trials? We look at our trials – although difficult and taxing – through the lens of what God can do in and through them.
What if we looked at our trial, not as something I am going to lose in, but as an opportunity for God to bless me? That’s a joyfully different point of view!
What if we began to see our trial not as something that is going to rob from me, diminish me or destroy me but as an opportunity for God to reveal himself to you in a way you’ve never experience before?
The person who looks at their trial through God’s eyes can see God’s blessing for them in it:
- The testing of my faith will produce endurance
- An enduring faith will give me the strength to persevere
- As I keep enduring I am growing, maturing in God
- The end result of my growing is a perfect, complete faith lacking nothing!
There is much good you can mine from your trial. But only if you approach it from the persecutive of faith in a God who desires to use it for your good!
PRAYER: Father, I thank you for my trial. I resolve not to complain and whine, but rather I give you praise that in the midst of this trial I am going to persevere and overcome, by your strength and Spirit. Thank you that what the enemy intended for my harm, you are redeeming for my good! In Jesus name, Amen.