by Janis Shank
James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Joy in trials sounds like an oxymoron to me. Have you ever had that thought? How do these two go together?
As pastors’ wives we are in constant proximity to those who suffer and, alongside our husband, we serve people when they are faced with trials of various kinds. From a flat tire on the freeway to a flat line on the heart rate screen, we hurt with and for the saints in our churches.
Not only do we hurt when others do, we have our own trials. A reoccurring conflict with our husband, a difficult situation with a child, an illness or physical affliction, financial downturns, hopes deferred, expectations unmet, slander from former friends, ongoing besetting sins, these are a sampling of my trials at present. How can we “count it all joy” when we “meet” these, and learn to skillfully serve others who face similar testings?
I am learning (again and again!) that what God wants to produce in me differs from the results I so often seek, which tend to center on happiness now. God desires my faith to be tested and produce steadfastness that won’t fail in the long run. Steadfastness can also be translated endurance or patience. Eugene Peterson calls endurance “a long obedience in the same direction”. Long obedience, that sounds hard! I am more often like the child that is motivated to obey for the promised candy! Yet, when I draw near to God, I see Him working in me a desire to endure with my Savior. Most importantly, I see the gospel and all He endured: His incarnation, His sinless life, His substitutionary death, His resurrection, His ascension, to secure my steadfastness. I find a growing desire to center my hope on the ultimate happiness of eternity with my Creator. I want to grow strong in this hope and encourage others with it too. Trials are what produce this patience, this endurance, this steadfast hope in me.
Have you ever stopped to realize that our entire lives we are waiting, which is often at the center of our trials? My daughter recently shared this quote with me: “Trusting God is the reliance of the soul upon God in Christ for something that is out of sight.” (William Bridge; Hope for the Downcast) There is always something beyond us or just out of sight that we are anticipating, a season of life, a provision, a fulfillment of a promise, our own character development, and these things in the ones we love. Until the day God has ordained to bring us to His side, we are waiting. So are the dear saints God has called us to love and serve. He has ordained the waiting to teach and test our faith so that we realize that He is what we are waiting for! To think that I will be rewarded in the end with perfect completion and being like my Savior! I will count joy in the trial, not the candy.
In closing, I recommend the following sermon on this passage by Charles Spurgeon http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1704.htm and encourage you with his words:
“Mr. Greatheart, (from Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress) who led the band of pilgrims up to the celestial city, was a man of many trials, or he would not have been fit to lead so many to their heavenly rest; and you, dear brother (or sister), if ever you are to be a leader and a helper, as you would wish to be, in the church of God, it must be by such means as this that you must be prepared for it. Do you not wish to have every virtue developed? Do you not wish to become a perfect man (woman) in Christ Jesus? If so, welcome with all joy divers trials and temptations; fly to God with them; bless Him for having sent them: ask Him to help you to bear them with patience, and then let that patience have its perfect work, and so by the Spirit of God you shall become "perfect and entire, lacking in nothing." May the Comforter bless this word to your hearts, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.”
