The book of James opens up with encouragement and exhortation for people facing trials. In fact, James begins the letter this way.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
James 1:1
The phrase “in the Dispersion” tells us a lot about how the state of his readers. You see one of the signs and that day of God’s presence of God fulfilling his promises to Israel, that to all the 12 tribes of Israel will be gathered together as one nation in Israel. But of course, on that day, the opposite was true. Rather than gathered, they are scattered throughout the ancient Near East, in places where they are marginalized and persecuted. So James is not writing to a gathered together reunited people. No, he is writing to a scattered, fearful “where is this God of ours” kind of church. And it’s to this audience that James says these remarkably audacious words.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
James 1:2
I want to explore four reasons for joy in the midst of our trials.
1. Trials Reveal Your True Character
Your trials can and will reveal your true character. The Greek Word James uses for the word trials is peirasmos. It’s a word that refers to the way adversity will reveal to us or expose us for who we really are.
Think about how this happens all the time in our lives. You’re driving, and you’re stuck in traffic, and then suddenly you begin to say things or make hand gestures that you wouldn’t usually say in public. You don’t get that promotion or grade you wanted, and suddenly, the spirit of blame or anger begins to swell up inside of you. Or you find out someone has gossiped about you behind your back, and so you go and say bad things about them behind their back. Or you didn’t get the promotion that you wanted or raise you were hoping for, and so you decide to be a little less generous with what God has given you. You see the challenges we face; they don’t just test us; they reveal us.
When we are going through a struggle, our responses, they’re already in there. The situation didn’t cause them; they’re inside of us. They just reared their ugly head out, but they were always there. That’s the true me at that moment. And all too often, in the face of our pain, we discover truths about ourselves that we actually don’t want to accept, do we?
Suffering takes people beneath the business of life and reminds them they are not who they thought they were.
Paul Tillich
James is saying; you need to consider trials as a reason for joy. If, for no other reason, you get a clear picture of who you actually are. Sometimes our pain is actually a form of God’s mercy; God allows you to go through struggle or pain because he doesn’t want you to remain cold-hearted or impatient or arrogant or greedy or controlling anymore. Pain is a greater revealer. It can reveal who you really are and allow you to experience God’s transforming grace; in the midst of that pain because trials reveal your character.
2. Trails Make you Stronger
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness
James 1:2-3
Your struggle doesn’t just reveal your character, but it begins to produce something in your spirit, in your character inside you that you wouldn’t otherwise have. Most of us have a low adversity threshold. We can get upset or aggravated or hurt by the smallest things. When we experienced challenges, we actually can get stronger.
The word for perseverance in the New Testament is a combination of two words remain and under. Going through challenges is not just about getting back on top of things. It’s about learning to remain under the stress, learning to remain under the weight, learning to remain under the pressure. And whenever you persevere, when you remain under, you actually get stronger; you grow in a way that you wouldn’t otherwise.
When you ask people what part of your life has helped you grow the most. Most likely, they wouldn’t tell you about their successes or their achievements. It’s usually not the journey of comfort or happiness; it’s usually struggles and adversity.
When most people think about the future, they dream up ways they might live happier lives. But notice this phenomenon. When people remember the crucial events that form them, they don’t usually talk about happiness. It’s usually the ordeals that seem most significant people shoot for happiness, but feel formed through suffering.
David Brooks, The Road to Character
3. Trials can Draw you Closer to Jesus
There’s a great picture of this in the Gospels, John 9
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
John 9:1-3
Sometimes there isn’t a good reason why. Sometimes there isn’t a person or a situation to blame. Sometimes the only answer in the midst of the mess, in the midst of the pain, is simply God is still there.
There’s an old church hymn called God Moves in a Mysterious Way, written by a man named William Cooper.
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm
And ye fearful saints, fresh courage take
The clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
And In blessings on your head
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain
For God is His own interpreter
And He will make it plain
I don’t know why a 25-year-old woman gets cancer. I don’t know why there’s such thing as tragic death or miscarriage. I don’t understand why people get sick or go through loss, but God is his own interpreter, and one day, he will make it plain. He will make it clear.
4. Trial Don’t Have to Have the Last Words
Your trials, they don’t have to have the last word, no matter what you’re struggling with, no matter how long you’ve been carrying that burden, no matter how dark the future may seem, it doesn’t have to have the last word.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4
Notice that James doesn’t describe the finish line in terms of circumstances. It doesn’t say that your job will be perfect one day or your marriage will be perfect, or your kids will be perfect. He says one day, you will be perfect. Whenever you are facing a trial, there is so much more at stake than just your comfort or your circumstances. As Dallas Willard once put it.
The main thing God gets out of your life is not the achievements you accomplish. It’s the person you become.
Dallas Willard
Some time ago, I was holding our little daughter Leia in my arms and trying to sing her to sleep, and as I was singing, I try to kind of shift her in my arms, and she almost slipped through and kind of panicked for a second, started crying and crying. And so I pulled her up to my arms and said, Honey, I’ve got you. I’ve it’s OK. It’s OK. Daddy still got you. Daddy’s still got you. And I’m so glad you can’t tell your mommy about this.
If you’re struggling. If you’re not sure how you can make it through. Our heavenly Father still got you.
If you’re not sure how to take that next step or what the next step will be, as dark as it may seem, as much doubt or despair as you maybe feel, this moment is an opportunity for God to draw close to you and remind you that he’s still got you.
How do I know? Because Jesus endured the greatest trial of all, betrayed by his friends and beaten by his enemies and nailed to a cross where even the son of God himself had to wonder, how will I get through what feels impossible? Only to have the third day, when the voice of God cried out through that resurrected life, Daddy still got you. Daddy’s still got you!
So consider joy! Consider joy through the lenses of our Heavenly Father.