Consider It All Joy

The Forth Bridge on a foggy night, taken at Hawse Pier, South Queensferry.
Photography courtesy of Ben Bremner, https://www.facebook.com/ben.bremner3

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4 (NASB)

Let me begin today by asking you a couple of questions: are you having a hard time lately and, and do you see these troubles as an opportunity or a burden? If I am honest with you I have had my fair share of troubles which may upset me from time to time, but according to my wife, I tend to be positive and try to turn these around in a good way. That was a relief to hear that when I asked her opinion! Life does have its ups and downs, but our reaction has a bearing on the outcome – whether we see the glass as half full or half empty. Lately I have been reading the words of James in the first chapter of his epistle, hence the choice of todays verses and subject.

It seems crazy to ask anyone to delight greatly in their trials, but this is what James is asking his readers and us to do. He speaks to us as believers in God and His Son Jesus Christ. There is a purpose in trials rather than just misery; primarily to withstand trials as a testing of our faith as children of God. Every so often we test our smoke alarms at home, to be sure they are going to work if needed; in a similar fashion our Father God tests our faith regularly. A working faith is the proof of our loyalty to our Father God, and our Lord Jesus. This loyalty is seen in our ability to endure; remaining steadfast behind God regardless of trials.

Dear reader, when you endure in faith under trials you grow as a child of God – seeing “its perfect result” as you mature in Him. In all this your trials are permitted in the sure knowledge that your Father provides a path out of the darkness, that you will not lack anything in His care for you. When trials occur we can remember past trials and how He carried us through them; in this is our joy found.

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