FBC Morning Light – October 6, 2022

James’s Call to Count Trials as Joy

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. How's your week gone so far this week? I trust you're doing well. The Lord is blessing you richly in whatever your endeavors every day. Well, today we're reading in James chapter 1, and James exhorts us to do something in this passage that is absolutely counterintuitive.

In the very early part of the chapter, verse 2, he says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Wait a minute. Did you read that right? Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm facing a trial, my instinct is not to count it joy. My instinct is to count it anything but. My instinct is to count this as something miserable, as something unpleasant, as something I want to get out of, something I don't want to deal with.

It is something that is bitter, hard, difficult, unpleasant. It's something that might make me complain or gripe. It's something that might lead me to be angry, but count it joy. James is telling us to do something here.

He said it's counterintuitive, but it is not impossible. How can I do this? How can I count it joy when I fall into various trials? They can be trials of any kind, any nature, any form. How can I count it joy?

Well, I can only do so if I realize what he says next. It is the testing of my faith, and that testing of my faith works endurance. So, the trial that I'm going through is a trial that is putting my faith to the test.

Will I truly trust in my God through this thing? Will I truly believe that what I say I believe about the sovereignty of God, what I believe about the purposes of God, as it's spelled out in Romans 8 .28, God works all things together for good to them that love God and worketh called according to his purpose.

Do I really believe that? Do I really believe that God is using this trial to mold me and make me more like Christ, to make me a better man, a better husband, a better father, a better pastor, a better leader, whatever.

Do I really believe that? You see, I think that when you get right down to it, let's be honest, when you get right down to it, trials bring out our faith. They reveal our faith. They reveal what kind of faith we have.

They reveal how deep it is. They reveal how broad it is. Yes, the trials are a testing of our faith. Those testings are designed to produce endurance. We have much to go through in the course of this life, and as long as God gives us breath, we have more to face in the days ahead.

How will we endure? How will we endure? We will endure as our faith is strengthened, as it is broadened, as it is deepened. And how does that faith develop? Through trials, through the experience of going through trials with our God.

So, count it all joy. Yes, a difficult task, no doubt, but a vital one, a vital one to come out of it in a way that will truly be beneficial in our walk with Christ. So, let's meditate on this through the course of the day.

Think back on the last trial that you endured. How did you deal with it? Did you find some way to express joy, to count it a joyful thing, even in the midst of the difficulty? Well, I wish I could say I was very successful at that all the time, but I'm certainly not.

Growth Through Trials and the Testing of Faith

So, this is an area for growth. This is an area for all of us to grow, isn't it? Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Our Father and our God, this is a difficult thing. It really does test our faith, and I pray that our faith would be proved genuine and active and vibrant and healthy.

We pray you would bless us as we do endeavor to count it all joy when we face various trials. We pray it in Jesus' name. All right, we'll have a good rest of your Thursday. Hope the Lord will bless you in it.

Good day.