Count it all Joy
I’ve been focusing on the wrong things lately. My gaze has been on the “trials” in my life, rather than on Jesus and what He wants to do in and through me. James begins his letter to “the twelve tribes” with this admonition:
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 RSV
We are familiar with this verse, and if you’re like me, you find it hard to apply. What might the “trials” have been for the early Christians to whom he wrote the letter? For one, Christians faced extreme persecution–ostracism and death were not uncommon. Additionally, they must have been mourning the death of Jesus. Also, they were forming churches and figuring out how being a Christian differed from being a Jew – the letter has a clear Jewish nature and language.
Are our trials worse than the early Christians’ trials? I doubt it. Have we “resisted to the point of shedding [our] blood” (Hebrews 12:4b)? Not likely. I’m not suggesting we don’t have serious trials — we do. But the remedy for our approach to trials can be the same one James admonishes the early Christians to adopt. Count it all joy.
Count it all joy when the church is experiencing a split, when families are leaving? Yes.
Count it all joy when an adult child is dealing with addiction or mental illness? Yes.
Count it all joy when the diagnosis is cancer? Yes.
Count it all joy when we get laid off? Yes.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. We don’t “count it all joy” because we’re happy with our situation; we are not exulting in the “bad” news itself. We can exult in the fact that God will use the circumstance to grow our dependence on Him and increase our steadfastness, or endurance. If we allow Him, God will make us “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Another favorite verse for many of us is Romans 8:28:
We know that in everything God works for good[a] with those who love him,[b] who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
But without verse 29, we can possibly construe a meaning God did not intend. As Christians, everything that happens to us isn’t objectively “good.” What is “good” is that God will use everything to conform us to the image of his Son, to produce endurance in us, to make us the women and men of God He has called us to be.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Romans 8:29
God, help me to wrest my gaze off the trials in my life, and put it on You. Help me to gaze on You, and give You thanks, to count it all joy when the trials come. Remind me that You are using these trials, if I let You, to produce endurance in my life, to make me more like You, to conform me into Your image. It’s painful, Lord. I’d rather not go through it. Help me to trust You. Thank You, Lord. Help me to “count it all joy.”
This is a word for the hour. Our “light afflictions” really don’t measure up to the trials the early church faced.
So true, Luwana. We need more perspective!
Powerful message, Katie. I know that I don’t always count trials all joy. May I look to Him to see me through the trials.
Thanks, Iris. Knowing the end result, our conformity to the image of Jesus, can help us through the trials.
Katie, such a good message and reminder too that when we suffer trials in life, we are not the first to do so . I have always looked at this verse as not having joy in my suffering, but the joy comes from knowing God is bigger than my problem. But to see that, we have to take our eyes off of the problem and see Jesus.
Yes, Laurie. That’s what I need to do – change what I’m gazing upon, take my eyes off my problems and put them on our Lord.