Why does God tell us to ‘consider it joy’ when we are experiencing trials? I don’t know about you, but I don’t find troubles joyful at all. They are painful, and I like most people I know do my best to try and stop the pain or get away from the painful circumstance. Is it possible that God is expecting us not to try and get out of those situations and relationships that cause pain?
Many people do whatever they can to dull their pain. Medication, prescribed or otherwise, is used heavily in our culture to do just that. In fact alcohol, marijuana, illegal drugs, sexual relationships, gambling, spending, eating – all of these are overused and abused to try and deaden the pain so that we don’t feel it. As followers of Christ, we know that we should be going to the Lord with our problems and letting Him take care of them rather than trying to fill our lives with these other things. But if all we’re doing is going to God and asking Him to take away the painful trial, then this passage (and others) indicate He may not. In fact, Scripture is full of examples of God allowing His people to go through any number of painful circumstances, and He brings them through it to a victory on the other side. The question is: to we trust Him to work in spite of the pain?
James continues in this passage to tell us the reason for the ‘trials of many kinds’, which is ‘that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything’. (v3&4) The word perseverance lets us know that God expects us to stick it out. That means we can’t mask it, medicate it, or run from it. Although I have known for many years this is true, and I always bring my trials to God in prayer, He showed me that I have been trying to keep the peace in some situations in order to control the amount of pain that comes my way. Yes, I’ve been trusting God is painful situations but I have not been trusting Him when I foresee a painful situation coming. I try to placate people and stop their anger. I try to get into the middle of people that are arguing to try and calm them down. I don’t say things I should say to people, just so they won’t get mad at me. The list goes on and on.
Whether we are in the middle of trials or we’re trying to stop our trials, the issue again is trust in God. Do you believe you can have joy in your trials? Do you believe God has your best in mind and wants to bring good out of them? I think we all can agree we like the idea of being ‘mature and complete, not lacking anything’. But how do we get to that point?
There are some great promises in this passage. V5 is one of my favorites: ‘If any of you lack wisdom he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him’. Asking God for wisdom is a simple thing. Ask and expect Him to answer; be careful not to reject the wisdom that He immediately drops into your mind. He says He will give wisdom to those who ask; and He says He will do it without finding fault. I take that to mean He won’t turn His back on me and say, “well it’s about time you asked! Look at all the stupid decisions you made! Now you’re in a mess so you’re turning to Me?” I have never ever found this promise to fail. I ask God for wisdom a lot, and He always gives it. As soon as I realize a situation doesn’t have a simple solution, or that a person is going to ask me for advice, I ask for wisdom. And I trust whatever He puts into my mind.
The passage also warns of what happens when we don’t trust. ‘When he asks, he must believe and not doubt; because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.’ (v6-8). Double minded in this context does not mean the person can’t make up his mind; it means he has unbelief. Don’t bother asking God for wisdom (in this context) and then not trusting that He will give it. You’re actually worse off doing that. If you’re asking God to give you anything: peace in your circumstances, a solution to your problem, a calm answer to an angry person, whatever it may be – you have to believe that He can and will do it. Otherwise, in your double-mindedness, you’ll be searching through your own mind for a solution even as you ask God to handle it! That is what God calls unstable.
I heard an illustration of how people react to trials, which we sometimes call ‘hot water’. Suppose you have a pot of boiling water, and you put in an egg. An egg is hard on the outside but soft on the inside; but when you put it in boiling water, the inside becomes hard. This is like some of us when we experience a trial; we harden and turn away from God, believing that He is someone the one who caused our pain and therefore we cannot trust Him. Now suppose you put a carrot in the boiling water. A carrot starts off hard but gets soft. Some of us, when we have trials, are hard towards God and won’t listen to Him, but He uses that trial to get us closer to Him and soften our hearts. Now finally, suppose you put ground coffee into that boiling water. It changes the water. The boiling water becomes coffee. In the same way, a life of someone who experiences trials but trusts God will be the one God uses to change their environment and the circumstances and the people around them. I want to be someone who changes the water.
What God expects is that we trust Him and persevere. We can take heart and be joyful in knowing that He is bringing us through the trial to make us stronger and closer to Him. And another promise (v12) ‘Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him’.
Christian Contemplative Journey 
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