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October 1, 2006
B-Pentecost 17
James 1:2-12
Pastor Robert Raasch

Christian, Consider Your Trials to be Pure Joy

1. They are a Means of Testing
2. They are an Opportunity for Trusting

What would you think if I told you that up is down or pigs can fly or that gas is selling for $.35 a gallon at the corner gas station? In each case I expect that your reaction would be, "That's ridiculous. It makes no sense. Why would you say something like that?" And you're right. Those are all outlandish statements, statements that seem to be pure foolishness.

But did you know that in the Bible, we find a number of statements that sound very similar to those? For example, Jesus once said, "The first shall be last." Huh? What does that mean? Sounds kind of foolish, doesn't it? Or how about Jesus' statement from the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are those who mourn"? Sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? How can mourning be a blessing? That seemingly makes no sense.

Well, in our text for today we run into another one of those seemingly contradictory statements, a statement that, to our human reason, makes no sense. St. James writes, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." What?!? We're supposed to be happy when we're undergoing trials? Why would he say that? What does he mean by that? My friends, these are the questions we'd like to answer today as we focus on this thought:

Christian, Consider Your Trials to be Pure Joy

Why would we ever do that? James tells us:

1. They are a Means of Testing
2. They are an Opportunity for Trusting

First, a little background information. The author of the book that bears his name was in fact the half-brother of Jesus. Same mother, different biological father. James writes this letter to, as he puts it in verse one, "the twelve tribes scattered among the nations." In other words, James is writing to Christians of Jewish descent, who have been scattered around the Mediterranean world because they have been severely persecuted. Remember how Luke describes the situation in Acts 8? He writes that on the day that Stephen was martyred, "a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the Apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." Can you imagine what that must have been like? To have to run for your life to avoid being killed for what you believe? To try to hide from those who were out to put an end to your life?

Wow! Talk about having your faith tested! How could those early believers not feel like their world was crashing in all around them? Or that God had somehow abandoned them? Talk about going through some severe trials in life. It's hard to imagine what they were going through. Or is it? Maybe as you look at your life, there are times when you've experienced similar feelings. Times when you've thought, "God, how could you let this be happening to me?"

For example, maybe you're faced with harassment on the job. People are ridiculing you for what you believe or passing you over for a job promotion or even letting you go because you weren't "their" kind of people. That's a trial, isn't it? Or maybe it's your classmates who give you a hard time for maintaining certain standards of morality in your life. When you say, "No, I'm not going to do that," they say "Why not? Do you think you're better than we are?" That's hard to take, isn't it? Or maybe the trial in your life has to do with your marriage. Your spouse is being really hard to live with. You're struggling with the same issues over and over. Your faith is being put to the test on a daily basis. Or maybe the special hardship that you're carrying is a physical ailment in yourself or someone you love. One nagging pain after another; one doctor visit after another, with no end in sight. Or maybe what you're struggling with is the death of a loved one, that empty feeling in your heart, the feeling of loss, hurt, anger and depression.

The more you think about it, the more you realize that at various points in our lives we all face hardships of one kind or another. Some of them are relatively minor, some are downright traumatic. Some come because we are Christians. In other words, they come as a reflection of the world's hatred of anything that has to do with Christ. Jesus predicted this when he said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." And again, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also" (John 15:18,20).

There are other trials, however, that we endure that are not the direct result of our faith, but are rather simply evidence that we still live in a world tainted by sin. When human relationships break down, when bodies get sick, when bones get broken, or people die-these are all painful reminders that we're not in Paradise yet. What God promised Adam and Eve is still true today; there will be pain and heartache, thorns and thistles, for "from dust you are and to dust you will return." As long as we're on this side of the grave, trials and tribulations are not electives in the course of life, they are part of the required curriculum.

The question is, what is our attitude toward such trials to be? James answers that when he says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." Notice that first word, "Consider it pure joy…" James is not saying that facing trials in life is going to be fun. He's not saying trials in and of themselves are a joy. He's really not talking about the trials themselves. He's talking about our attitude toward the trials. He says, "consider your trials to be pure joy." Count them as something good. Regard them as something that God allows for your benefit. It's all in our perspective.

And why can we regard our trials as a good thing? James tells us that: I. Trials are a Means for Testing. James writes, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance."

Now, before we talk about perseverance, let's focus on that word, "testing." Notice that James basically connects the two ideas: trials and testing. Trials are a form of testing. And testing in and of itself is a good thing. Not necessarily an easy thing, but a beneficial thing, nonetheless. You might say, "That chemistry test was insane!" Okay, maybe it was. But it still served a good purpose. It showed you what you know and what you don't know.

Last week I decided to test my chest waders to see if they had any holes in them. I walked out into the FVL pond. Did they pass the test? No, the water came pouring in through a great big hole. Was that test pleasant? No, but was it beneficial? Yes, it was. It helped me realize how good-or in this case how bad-my waders were.

Well, so it is with the trials that God allows into our lives. Sometimes God uses trials to test our faith, that is to help us evaluate the quality of our faith. For example, when the death of a loved one sends us back to God's promises of life after death through the glorious resurrection of his Son, and when we can confidently confess, "I know that my loved one is in the arms of her Savior," then our God-given faith is confirmed. Even by means of that severe trials, it is proved genuine. That test served a good purpose.

And yet, the tests we face in life are designed to not only teach us something about ourselves, but actually produce something in us. For example, if I wanted to see what kind of shape you were in, I might have you do 20 push-ups. But by that test, I would not only be learning something about you. That test would also be producing something in you. It would produce muscles in your arms.

That's exactly the picture that James is using here in our text, when we writes, "the testing of your faith develops perseverance." The Greek word there is hypomonay. Literally, it means, "the ability to hold up underneath something." It's the picture of a muscle. The dumbbell weighs the muscle down. The muscle contracts to lift the dumbbell up. The more often it happens, the stronger the muscle gets. Through the process of testing, the muscle grows in its ability to hold up underneath something. You might say that it develops perseverance.

Well, James says that the same thing is true in our life of faith. "The testing of your faith develops perseverance." In other words, God uses the trials we face in life to stretch us, to exercise us, to build up the faith he's planted in our hearts. Like any body building routine, sometimes it hurts; sometimes we ache, sometimes we cry out, "Please, God, take it easy on me. This is too hard!" Yet, when we recognize that the ultimate goal is a stronger, purer faith, it makes it a little easier to put up with the trials. In fact, isn't that God's ultimate goal, namely to make us strong, mature and rock solid in our faith? St. James says as much when he writes, "Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." That's God's goal for you, dear Christian, namely, that you be mature. Not a baby, with baby fat and baby muscles that can barely hold your head up. Rather, that you be well developed. You might say that God wants you to be "spiritually buff."

But now, maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Yeah, that's a great goal. I'd like to be able to see the good in all these trials I'm going through. But honestly, I can't. Right now it's just too hard. I feel too beaten down by all the trials I'm going through. Well, that brings us to the second reason we can consider our trials to be pure joy. They are not only a means of testing. II. They are an Opportunity for Trusting.

Now, what does that mean? Simply this. There are going to be times in our lives when we just don't get it. When we say, "God, I don't understand. Why is this happening to me? What possible good can come out of this?" It's at times like these that God invites us to simply trust him. He invites us to put our lives into his hands. How does Jesus put it? "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest" (Mt. 11:28). Or as St Peter said, "Cast all your anxiety on him, for he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Or you think of the Apostle Paul pleading with the Lord to take away his thorn in the flesh and God answering, No, "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).

Throughout the course of our lives, we are going to face trials that make it painfully obvious that we are not as strong as we think we are, times when we have no choice but to lean on God and his promises. Times when we need to ask, "God you've got to help me through this. Please, help me see this whole thing from your perspective. And you know something? When we ask God for that kind of divine wisdom, he is more than happy to give it to us. How does James put it? "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

My friends, that is so true. God is the only one who can truly give us the ability to see past our earthly trials and fix our eyes on what truly matters, namely, that God has not abandoned me, but rather, has adopted me as his own precious child, he's forgiven my sins, and has prepared a place in heaven for me by the blood of his Son and promise that he will walk with me every step of my life now and forever. No matter how difficult my circumstances may seem in the near term, I know that my long term prospects are out of this world. In fact, that's exactly what James means when he says, "The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position." In other words, as Christians, we have the freedom to focus not on what we lack in earthly comforts, but rather on what we have as the holy, precious, redeemed children of God.

The story is told of a woman who was born into a wealthy family in England. She married into nobility and became a famous song-writer. But at a young age, she was stricken with blindness. Her husband subsequently divorced her because he didn't want to be married to a blind woman. Over the course of many hardships in her life, she ended up old and destitute, living as a ward of the state, confined to a single room of a home paid for by the county. Yet through it all, she never lost sight of the love that God had shown to her in her Savior Jesus Christ. When people asked her how she was doing, this poor blind woman would always say the same thing. "I'm fine-in the things that count."

My friends, no matter what trials you are facing right now, you can face them with joy because you know that by such tests, God is strengthening and maturing you, and more importantly, because you can trust that when it comes to the most important things in life, namely your standing with God and his perfect plan for your life, you too are just fine, in the loving arms of your Savior God. In Jesus' name. Amen.