Consider It All Joy?
Really?
When you are sick, fail a
test, lose a friend or family member, or experience any other type of trial,
typically the last thing you want to do is count it as a joy. But that’s what
scripture says. Doesn’t scripture seem to say some crazy things at times? For
me, this is one of them.
As I’m writing this, I am
sick. Yeah, not a whole lot of fun! But the reality is that God allows His
people to go through trials because He has a bigger plan in mind. James 1:2-4
says, “Consider it a 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.”
So the purpose of trials is to
produce endurance, maturity, and completion. The purpose of endurance,
maturity, and completion is to look more like Christ. The key to this is that
we must allow ourselves to consider it all joy. Easy said than done right? The
reality is that when a family member is diagnosed with cancer, you lose your
job, or even experience a small inconvenience, we have the opportunity to
become bitter or get better.
We don’t know why God chooses
trials to look more like Him, but He does. Francis Chan helps us out here. In
his book, Crazy Love, he says imagine for a second that God is the vastness of
an ocean and your mind is a soda can. It would be foolish to say that we
understand God fully because we can only scoop so much ocean water into our
soda can. There is so much more ocean
out there. There is so much more to God.
So, the next time you go
through a trial, it is okay to not understand why you are going through such a
thing. But consider it all a joy. At the end of the day, it is for our good and
God’s glory.
Enjoy the beginning of the
holiday season!
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