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.
(James 1:2-4).

What do you think when you hear James’ admonition?

Maybe your knee-jerk reaction to difficulties is  to complain. Or to feel angry—or defeated—because you’re not able to deal with trials on your own.

Indeed, we can’t deal with trials on our own. It’s only as we trust our loving Father with our trials that we overcome.

Here is how James 1:2-4 is rendered in The Voice:

Don’t run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them; if you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure. And true patience brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line—mature, complete, and wanting nothing.

The joy James is talking about may not be our initial response to trials, but if we respond to them in faith (which blossoms under pressure) and learn to patiently endure, we will ultimately find joy in our hardships.

Look how joyful the toddler in our blog photo is. He’s way off the ground, seemingly flying through the air, and he’s laughing! Did you notice that someone (likely his daddy) is holding him by the right foot. Dad’s not going to let him fall. And our Heavenly Father will keep his hand on us through our trials.

In a previous post I said that Jesus “was able to survive the experience of being surrendered [by Pilate] to the will of the crowd because he had already surrendered himself to the will of the Father.” And so it is with us. If we are surrendered to the will of our loving Father, we can trust Him with anything that comes into our lives. Our faith and patience will grow as we trust him through our trials.

At the end of this long journey we will stand before the Lord; we’ll be mature and complete. We will lack nothing. Knowing that each trial we endure along the way is preparing us for that great moment, we can rejoice. We are held in God’s hands, and He is using our trials for our good!

Let’s walk on in joy!
Ginger