How can a person consider trouble as an opportunity for joy? This is a remarkable command—we are to choose to be joyful in situations where joy would naturally be our last response. When certain circumstances make us angry and we want to blame the Lord, James directs us to the healthier alternative—joy.This is not joyful anticipation for trials. Instead, it is joy during trials. The joy is based on confidence in the outcome of the trial. It is the startling realization that trials represent the possibility of growth. In contrast, most people are happy when they escape trials. But James encourages us to have pure joy in the very face of trials. James is not encouraging believers to pretend to be happy. Rejoicing goes beyond happiness. Happiness centers on earthly circumstances and how well things are going here. Joy centers on God and his presence in our experience.
This testing of our faith is a test that has a positive purpose. In this case, the troubles do not determine whether or not believers have faith; rather, the troubles strengthen believers by adding endurance to the faith that is already present. Endurance is faith stretched out; it involves trusting God for a long duration. We cannot really know our own depth until we see how we react under pressure. Precious diamonds begin as coal, subjected to intense pressure over a period of time. Without pressure, coal remains coal. The testing of your faith is the combined pressure that life brings to bear on you.
Endurance, like a precious gem, is the intended outcome of this testing. Endurance is not a passive submission to circumstances—it is a strong and active response to the difficult events of life, standing on your feet as you face the storms. It is not simply the attitude of withstanding trials, but the ability to turn them into glory, to overcome them.
When it comes to trials, we would rather escape, explain, or exit the difficulty. In fact, we will tend to do almost anything to avoid enduring a trial. Faithful endurance, however, generates whole people, recognized as strong in character, or mature. We will be seasoned, experienced, well-developed, fit for the tasks God sent us into the world to do. This strength is a quality developed by how much we have learned from the trials we have experienced. We are also ready for anything because we have been fully trained. The weaknesses and imperfections are being removed from our character; we are gaining victory over old sins; we are demonstrating a sense of competence about life. This completeness relates to the breadth of our experience.
There is a finish line. There are successes along the way—spiritual progress has its mile markers. But the trials of this life are contained in this life. Someday the test will be over. The first chapter of James teaches us that God’s long-term goal for us is maturity and completeness, but his eternal goal for us is the crown of life, a rich expression of hope. The believer who patiently endures by trusting God will have a life that, though not full of glory and honor, is still truly abundant, joyful, and victorious. Standing the tests of life gives believers even now a taste of eternity. Looking forward to that wonderful reward, and to the one who will present it to us, can be a source of strength and encouragement in times of trial.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)
There are three things I want to remind you about when it comes to the problems and difficulties we encounter in this life;
#1. Problems purify my faith. James uses the word "testing", as in testing gold and silver. You would heat them up very hot until the impurities -- the dross -- was burned off. Job said "He has tested me through the refining fire and I have come out as pure gold." The first things trials do is test our faith. They purify us. Christians are a lot like tea bags. You don't know what's inside of them until you drop them in hot water. Then you know. Your faith develops when things don't go as planned. Your faith develops when you don't feel like doing what's right. It purifies your faith. Christians are like steel; when they're tested they come out stronger.
#2. Problems fortify our patience. "...the testing of your faith develops perseverance." He's talking about staying power, not a passive patience, but staying power, endurance. The ability to keep on keeping on, the ability to hang in there. The Greek here is literally "the ability to stay under pressure." We don't like pressure and we do everything we can to avoid it. We run from it, take drugs, drink alcohol, go to Disneyland, anything to get away from pressure. But God uses problems in our lives to teach us how to handle pressure, how to never give up. There was a time in my life I prayed for patience, and the problems got worse. Finally, after a while, I realized I was a lot more patient than when I first started out.
How does God teach you patience? By everything going your way? No. God teaches you patience in traffic jams, in grocery lines, the waiting periods of life.
We live in a comfortable and convenient society. Everybody wants it now. If I can't have it now, forget it. Endurance, today, is a rare quality. Lombardi said, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
#3. Problems sanctify my character. They make me like Jesus. They help me mature. They help me to grow. "The testing of your faith produces perseverance that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." That's God's long range goal. His ultimate purpose is maturity. God wants you to grow up. He wants you to mature. In the Christian life, character is the bottom line. So many Christians I talk to have absolutely no idea of God's agenda in their life. They don't know what's happening and as a result they are overwhelmed by their problems.
We've talked about it so many times - Remember - God's number one purpose in your life is to make you like Jesus Christ. God is much more interested in building my character than in making me comfortable. If God is going to make me like Jesus, He's going to take me through the things Jesus went through. There were times when Jesus was lonely, fatigued, tempted to be depressed and discouraged. The Bible says there are two ways that God makes us like Jesus:
Through the word of God. John 17:17 says, "Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth." James 1:22-25 says "The word makes us like Jesus" it builds our character, matures us. But even if you read the Bible two hours a day, how many hours of your life are you not reading God's word? God demands even more in the second way.
Through the circumstances of life. Here's where James hits it right on the head. So many Christians I meet say, "Everything was going great when I first became a believer. Then all of these problems came. Maybe God doesn't love me. Maybe I'm not a Christian. Maybe I'm not really saved. Maybe I've missed the boat." You are exactly where God wants you. You're in a character course. He's making you like Jesus. Romans 8:28 "We know that all things work together for good" [not all things are good but they work together for good] if we love God and are called according to His purpose." The secret of Romans 8:28 is 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow He did predestine to become conformed to the image of the Son of God." Why do all things work together for good? In order to make me like Christ.
Remember these things today and as you go forward in life. God has a plan and a purpose - always.
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