"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials..." James 1:2, NKJV

This past Sabbath, we were blessed to hear several of our young people share about recent adventures they had experienced.  Of course, it's always an encouragement to hear what God is up to in the lives of our younger generations, but what moved me most were the stories of how they each endured adversity, situations in which their expectations were turned upside down.  Our youth didn't just tolerate their unique difficulties with drudgery.  No, for each one, those out-of-comfort-zone circumstances moved them toward personal growth.  Hard times in life can easily push us back into despair, but they don't have to.  Hard times can actually spur us on to press forward, onward, and upward into becoming more and more the people God has called us to be.  In light of last week's post about continual spiritual development, the testimonies shared last Sabbath got me thinking:  how can I cultivate the habit of seeing my trials as opportunities for growth rather than groaning?

COUNT IT

In the opening lines of his epistle, the apostle James addresses this very question to Christ followers who have encountered a life of persecution and resistance.  As one who himself identifies with their suffering, he speaks with pointed simplicity:

 "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials..." James 1:2, NKJV

The first imperative for those who have fallen into trial is an appeal to "count" or think about their circumstances differently than their minds naturally would.  The Greek root word here literally means "lead," and it refers to something that comes first in priority, thought or esteem.  

James is urging believers to shift their first thought when we fall or find ourselves surrounded by trial.

Instead of reacting to trial, we are to take every thought captive (2 Cor. 10:5) and deliberately choose what will take priority in our hearts and minds.  We don't always have the power to choose whether or not we fall into trial, but we always have the ability to choose how we think when those trials come.  Instead of allowing frustration to flood our mental space in the face of trial or tragedy, we can choose joy.  

Hold on...choose joy?  James isn't saying we should feel happy about our crises.  Joy is not the same as happiness.  The root word for "joy" is actually a cognate of the term for "grace."  Biblical joy, then, is a willful rejoicing in light of God's grace.  We can "count it all joy" not because our suffering makes us happy, but because we recognize we're still recipients of God's amazing grace even in our difficulties.

KNOW THAT

James further unpacks what the believers' response should be to the hardships that befall us in the following verses:

"...knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:3-4, NKJV

In our trials, we can  choose joy as our leading thought when we are assured of something very specific: that God can and will produce something out of this.  

In the midst of our difficulties, we may not feel like God is at work, but James assures us that God actually IS at work and that He's accomplishing a perfect work.

No, God doesn't produce our trial or tragedy, but He is bringing something about through those trials.  He is working behind the scenes to bring about patience, endurance, steadfastness in our walk with God.  The apostle Peter describes the results of our suffering in a similar way:

These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:7, NIV

Our various trials produce in us a more genuine faith in Jesus.  As fire purifies gold, our seasons of hardship purify our trust in God, resulting in more "praise, glory, and honor" to God when Jesus returns.  If through our present suffering God is producing something beautiful and eternal, then yes, we can surely count it all joy as James said.  Or as Ellen White wrote, we can consider our trials not as a curse, but as the greatest blessing:

"God in His great love is seeking to develop in us the precious graces of His Spirit. He permits us to encounter obstacles, persecution, and hardships, not as a curse, but as the greatest blessing of our lives. Every temptation resisted, every trial bravely borne, gives us a new experience and advances us in the work of character building. The soul that through divine power resists temptation reveals to the world and to the heavenly universe the efficiency of the grace of Christ" (Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, 117).

Wow, did you catch that?  It's God's great love that moves Him to work behind the scenes to grow us through adversity.  Each trial is an opportunity to experience God's grace in new ways, not just for our personal growth but for the revelation of His grace to the entire cosmos!

Friends, when hardships harass our hearts with the feeling that we've somehow been severed from God's love, let's pause, pray, and take captive every thought.  Let's count those difficulties joy, know that God is at work, and rest assured that nothing can "separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:39)!  May we learn to trust that the God who loves us with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3) is at work through our difficulties to grow us, develop us, and refine our characters to the extent that the rest of the unfallen worlds can look at our lives and see the full extent of what the grace of Christ can do.