You Are My Joy!

James 1:2-4

English Standard Version (ESV)

Testing of Your Faith

²  Count it all joy, my brothers,^[a] when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faithproduces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4 is a great encouragement when we are going through hard seasons of life. Just in these short verses James, a servant of God, tells us that in difficult times, we must find joy because God is allowing us to endure this trial in order to strengthen our faith. Sounds easy enough, right? When we are going through the hardest times in our lives, we are filled with joy. In reality, we tend to be filled with angst and frustration. From my own life, trials have always caused me a great deal of anxiety. So in our hardest times, how can we find joy and why should we?

It is interesting that James says, "When you meet trials..." He doesn't say if you meet trials. James knows that if we living like Christ we will endure tough times.  Christianity is not meant to be a happy walk in the park. It is going to be hard and we are going to go through much grief. Knowing that we are going to have trials in our lives, James says," Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds..." The NIV translation says to count "pure joy." So we aren't supposed to just put a happy face mask on when we are struggling. We are to find PURE JOY in our trials. We must realize that God isn't allowing this to happen to punish us, but He is using these times to strengthen us.

The key is knowing why we endure trials. It is not an easy thing to count it all joy when you feel like you are being pushed down or helpless. First, we must quit our grumbling and complaining. Then just take a step back and prayerfully think about why this is happening and how God could be communicating something to you. This will not be easy, and it will take work to be able to step back like that. In these verses, James tells us that God will use these times to build steadfastness in us. Trials will cause us to think about things. A lot of the time God is telling us that we can't make it through this season on our own. We must allow the Holy Spirit to work through us. When we know why we are going through hardships, it can be easier to find pure joy in it. 

While building steadfastness in us, God is calling us to excellence. Verse 4 says, "And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." This is what God is calling us to be in our lives of worship. Though we will never be able to attain true excellence and perfect because only Christ was perfect, but we must always strive to be perfect and excellent. So as we go through our lives of trials, we must step back, understand that God is using this to teach us, and then we must allow Him to work through us so we can overcome our trials. When we depend on Him to save us, we will be able to comprehend what James means when he says, "Count it all joy."