James 1:2-4
"Consider it great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."
Who in their right mind would open up a book of the Bible like this? Answer- someone who knows that there will be struggles, and who has been through the struggles themselves and has seen God's providential nature. Lets take the first verse with joy and trials being the main points. What is true joy? how is it related to happiness and how does it differ? Happiness has been described as temporary joy, however I believe that the two should honestly not be put in the same boat. Happiness by all means can come from our Father above and from the things around us. Our joy is directly dependent upon the things we worship though. As futile beings if we place our joy in things of this world our joy will be short lived and be miniscule. When this joy is placed in something so much greater than us, so much more powerful than us, and will out last all that we are, this joy will last as long as the thing we put it in. God is the only one who can give us this kind of joy. The Bible says itself that the things of this earth will pass away but God's word will still remain. Happiness is the short burst of pleasures that we get in life. These are short lived and pale in comparison to the joy that we receive from God. Unfortunately all too often we put more stock into our happiness than our joy. As we see from James, joy comes with suffering.
James tells us that we should count it great joy when we suffer. So this everlasting happiness that we receive from God we are suppose to have when we endure hard times. This seems and is completely contradictory to our human nature, is that not what God has called us to though? James does use careful language here in order to show that we should have joy in every trial by saying that we should count it great joy whenever we encounter "various Trials". James emphasizes this because in smaller trials it is easy to turn to God, but when it comes right down to our livelihood, to whether or not the gun pointed at our face is loaded, to whether or not we can provide for our families, it becomes much harder then to turn to God. We think, "If I just try hard enough I can make things right. God bless my hard work." God blesses hard work, hard work with faith in Him. These types of trials are the kind that knock us off our feet and continue to pound us mercilessly while we are down and bleeding. these are the trials that truly test our faith, will we run to God, or lean on our own strength?
James tells us to consider these trials great joy because they test our faith. These trials are now quick fix. These trials require us to dig our fox hole just a little deeper, we will be in them for awhile. THese trials test our faith by bringing us to our lowest point, then dragging us for miles/years at this point in order to do whatever possible to break us. These trials test our endurance. If we persevere and push through these trials with the help of God then we will be rewarded. James warns us however, "endurance must do its complete work" (my emphasis). When we hit the low point of our life we can easily Look to God and think, "Ok, its over right? The Devil brought me to my low point and You'll bring me out right?" Wrong.
In order to be "complete and lacking nothing" our endurance must be pushed. We must see just how long we will be able to suffer for the Name that we claim to live our lives by. WE must be brought to our lowest and kept there. We must be brought to our breaking point to remind us WE ARE FUTILE AND CAN DO NOTHING WITHOUT GOD!!! When we hit this point it is then that we see our faith strengthen. We see why God has placed us in these circumstances, we see why God has allowed us to go through these things, and we see how He has been guiding us through it all the whole time. We finally see how we are able to find joy when all our world around us is crumbling.
God today let us be reminded that we need You. Let us seek Your strength, Your face, Your peace. God test our faith so that we may be able to serve You better. Make us mature and complete, no matter the cost. Let us be reminded of the cost You paid in order to save us from these trials. God let us find You today. We ask all this in Your son's powerful Name, in Jesus Name. Amen.
