James 1:2–4 — count it all joy: how trials grow you up

Through James, part 2 · James 1:2–4

"Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing." (James 1:2–4)

Remember who James is writing to: people who lost jobs, friends, family, and homes for following Jesus. And the first thing he says to them is "consider it a great joy." That's either cruel or it's the most important thing they could hear. James believes it's the second, and here's why.

"Count it" — do the math

The word translated "consider" or "count" is an accounting word. It means to take account, to examine, to reconcile the books the way an accountant would. James isn't asking you to feel happy about a trial. He's asking you to sit down and do the math: What good could come out of this? What do I need to learn through this?

My dad had a prayer for hard seasons that I've adopted: "Lord, whatever it is I need to learn, help me learn it quick."

"Fall into" — trials you didn't choose

James says you "fall into" these trials. The word means to be surrounded by, to be taken hold of. It's the same word Luke uses for the man on the Jericho road who "fell among thieves" (Luke 10:30). He didn't go looking for them. They found him.

That's the kind of trial James has in view: unavoidable, brought on from outside, out of your control. Not the mess you made yourself (he'll get to that in verse 13). The things that just happen to you.

Trials work for you, not against you

"The testing of your faith produces endurance." Think of getting a valuable card graded. The grading doesn't damage the card; it proves what it is. Trials show and prove our faith. They're the grading process.

And they produce something. The word "endurance" (older translations say "patience") means staying under the pressure and not breaking. It is not a passive acceptance of circumstances. It is courageous perseverance in the face of suffering. And the only way the Lord can develop that kind of character in us is through trials. There is no shortcut.

What impatience costs

Scripture is honest about what happens when people won't stay under the trial. Moses got impatient, killed a man, and spent forty years in the desert. Abraham got impatient waiting on a promise, took Hagar, and fathered a conflict that's still going. Peter got impatient in the garden and nearly took a man's head off.

So the question is real: how will you react when trials come? Patiently or impatiently? Will you try to force your own desires to happen, or seek what God's plan for you is inside the trial?

I've lived both sides of this. Waiting on the right property and house. Waiting through a hard season while Kailee and I were dating. In every case the thing we were waiting for was sweeter for the patience it took to get there — and the person I became in the waiting was the point.

"Mature and complete" — what God is building

The goal is that you'd be "mature and complete, lacking nothing." The word is perfect in the older sense: whole, finished, grown up. Christian maturity looks like being like Christ; Romans 8:28–29 says God is working everything toward conforming us to the image of His Son.

But God cannot build our character without our cooperation. The military builds character, but not in someone who refuses to cooperate. God desires to finish the job — "He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6) — and He does it the way a good father does. My job as a parent is to help my daughters mature; when one of them cleans her room, I'm not being hard on her, I'm growing her up. God's desire as our Father is the same for us.

The whole idea

Trials are going to come that are out of your control. You need to endure them, because they're the tool God uses to make you whole. And peace in the middle of them comes through submission to God's will — not through getting out of them faster.

Before the next hard thing

All of that assumes something. It assumes God is your Father and He's actually building you into something. If you've never come to Jesus, He isn't building you yet — He's calling you. Your trials are just hard. Nothing is being made out of them. Jesus died for your sin, they buried Him, and He came out of that grave three days later, and He saves every person who calls on Him. Not the cleaned-up ones. Anybody who asks. Do that today and the hard things in your life stop being wasted.

If He's already yours, you have a trial going right now. You know which one it is. This week, stop praying only for the exit and pray the other prayer out loud: Lord, what are You growing in me here, and I'm staying under it until You're finished. Say it in the truck on the way to work if that's the only place you're alone.

Count it. You won't feel it. Count it anyway.

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Through James: ← Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3 →