James Chapter 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Now this can be a very difficult passage of Scripture because it advocates a way of life that is just about the exact opposite of the way most people approach their lives. Most people in the world today try their best to avoid difficulties and trials of any kind. Life is hard enough when things are going well, they’ll tell you, it’s a nightmare when you have to face a lot of trials. This passage says that we shouldn’t consider trials a nightmare at all. Instead we should consider them pure joy! In fact James says that we should consider it pure joy when we have to face all kinds of different trials all the time! That is just absurd to most people, and not just most modern people, but most people from any place and time in history. No one has ever enjoyed going through trials and difficulties. At least not most sane people.

But James goes on to tell us why we should do that and the reason gets to the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The reason why we should consider trials as joyful things is because they develop perseverance in our lives and perseverance helps us to become mature and complete in Jesus. When everything is going well our faith doesn’t get tested the way it does when we go through trials. We don’t have to endure or hang in there, or prayerfully cry out to God for His sustaining power and deliverance. We don’t experience His provision in the same way or really get to test His faithfulness. A life without trials actually stunts us in our Christian growth. It keeps us immature in the faith and in our experience of our faith and those are bad things.

It also shows us the true meaning of life and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We are here to bear fruit for God and to grow in our knowledge of Him and to bear fruit for Him. That is the meaning of life and the nature of living life as a follower of Jesus. We need to understand that our growth and maturity in the faith are more important than our comfort and ease. God is more concerned with our spiritual growth than our comfort. If He has to bring trials and difficulties our way in order to help us grow then He’s going to bring them. We need to be more concerned with our growth than with having an easy life. That is why we welcome trials.

This kind of mindset can revolutionize our thinking. If we can get this we won’t go through life whining and complaining when we have difficulties. Instead we will look at them as a gracious gift from God to build us up and make us strong in Him. When we see the growth that the trials bring we will view them differently and maybe we can even get to the point where we can rejoice in them when they come knowing that God is using them to make us strong.

May the Lord give you a great week and may His Spirit fill you in all ways and at all times.

In Jesus,
Pastor Phil

Posted in Pastor's Message

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