Day 1 - Week 65 - The reason for our joy!

We add to our joy verses today the verse following last week's verse of James 1:2, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you are faced with trials of many kinds."  This week we'll add to that the reason that we are to consider trials joy...because of the result of going through the trials.  If we go through trials, even joyfully, without any good coming from them, the next time a trial comes around we may not embrace it so easily.  But when we go through a trial, and then a promised result occurs, we grow in faith...we know God has been with us. 

So what is the result we should be expecting?

James 1:3-4 "Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."

(Did you notice that I snuck two verses in this week?  I just couldn't separate them...you have to have 4 to make 3 work!)

The expectation that we should have when we face a trial of any kind is that God is at work in us, prodding us to an endurance that we formerly did not know we were capable of, and when we get through that test, seeing that we have endured through God's strength, we have grown.  We find ourselves looking at life through more mature eyes, we are more complete in our faith, and eventually...yes with the perfection of our resurrection when we have truly endured to the end...we will lack nothing!

When we know that our trials are up to something in us, that they can make us better Christians, that we have an opportunity to share God's power in our lives with others, then it makes a lot more sense to consider them with a joyful attitude, doesn't it?

I hope today when you encounter a trial, big or small, you say a little prayer and ask God to use it to mature you, to grow you, to strengthen your faith...and to know that He is there beside you.

Review to date!

Obedience (10)
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Lamentations 3:40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:11 Do not lack diligence; be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord.
Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction, be persistent in prayer.
Romans 12:18 If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone.
2 Corinthians 9:7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Hebrews 10:25 "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." (NKJV)
Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."
Proverbs 15:1 "A gentle word turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath."

The Holy Spirit's Role in our Lives (6)
Ephesians 5:18 "And don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled with the Spirit."
Ephesians 5:19 "Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music in to the Lord in your hearts."
Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Ephesians 5:21 "Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ."
Galatians 5:22 "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."
2 Timothy 1:14 "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you...guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us."

Joy: God's Kind of Happiness (12)
Psalm 118:24 "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"
Philippians 4:5 "Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near."
Philippians 4:6 "Do not worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."
Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."
James 1:2 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds."

I just couldn't resist adding this picture today.  Life gets sour sometimes, doesn't it?  But we've been told to consider the sour moments part of our joyful life.  For we know that without the sensation of sour, we'd never fully appreciate the wonderful taste of the sweet!  So we will "consider it pure joy when we encounter trials of many different kinds", trusting in God, things will get better...He has great plans for us....the greatest of which is our eternal homes that are being prepared for us in His presence!

I think we, the "we" being most 2012 Americans living in relative comfort, tend to trivialize "trials". I am not saying that we do not encounter times that truly test us, we have health issues, family issues, financial issues, relationship issues, all of which can range from minor to very major on our trial scales....but when James was talking to the scattered Jews of the first century A.D., they were encountering t-r-i-a-l-s!!

When we read James 1:1, he says, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings."  When we read a verse like this, we tend to dismiss it...it is just the "lead in"...let's get to the meat of the message!  But to truly understand the intensity of James message, we need to linger on this verse for just a minute.  James identifies himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He served God well during his earthly life...he was one of the stalwarts of the early church in Jerusalem.  But he didn't start out that way.  During Jesus' ministry on earth, James was not one of his followers, he was not the disciple, James.  That was John's brother.  No, James, this James, started out as a doubter of Jesus...this James was Jesus own half-brother, son of Mary and Joseph.  And he was a scoffer of his older brother.  Until Jesus came to him as His resurrected Savior.  In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul tells us,

"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James..."

This is when James' life turned around...180 degrees.  And he never stopped preaching the message that he received from His brother Jesus until he died, a martyr of the faith, thrown from the top of the temple and then stoned and clubbed to death.  Do  you think he encountered trials along the way?

Now, back to the message...James addresses his letter to the scattered tribes throughout the nations.  These scattered tribes are Jews who have left Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, their homes, due to persecution.  Ever since the Babylonian exile, the entire twelve tribes of Israel had never been reunited.  At this time, further scattering occurred due to Roman persecution of both Jews and the growing number of Christian Jews.  As in the centuries since, the Jewish people have undergone persecution and scattering for various reasons under various regimes.  Not only were they being forced from their homes to move to lands unknown, to cultures very different from their own, along the way they faced the possibility of being imprisoned, beaten, or killed.  For those who stood firm in their faith in the face of the opposition, life indeed carried with it the possibility of "many kinds of trials."

Now - James presents to this audience, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds."  Are you crazy, James?  "Pure joy at the hands of my oppressor?  Pure joy when I may be beaten today for no reason at all?  Pure joy when my home and possessions are taken from me and I am forced to tell my wife and children that we are walking to...I don't know where...to do...I don't know what?" 

It puts a little different perspective on considering trials joy, doesn't it?  And yet, James says that these trials are not encountered without purpose.  Our next verses explore the result of trials, and just why we can embrace them with joy...no matter how intense. 

Thank You, God, that You are with us through every trial, through every moment that we are pushed to our limits.  You are there.  You know and You give us strength.  We can smile knowing that You are working within us to make us more like You and that no matter how dark the night, joy will come in the morning!  Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for Your continued faithfulness! 

Day 3 - Week 64 - James 1:2 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds."

I'm having to work on my joy this morning.  Even though I am again sitting outside, on a beautiful spring morning, listening to the birds sing, my heart is not joyful.  It has been weighed down the past few days with a feeling of sadness about the world we live in, and the world in which my grandchildren will grow up. 

I long for the world as I knew it as a child, when things were so much simpler.  And I don't mean they were simpler just because I was a child, they were simpler for everyone.  The rules were plainer and there was no so much divisiveness.  I fully realize that not everyone lived in an "Ozzie and Harriet" kind of world, but I really believe that anyone born after 1970 cannot understand how different our times are. I also realize that I was brought up in an environment not like everyone else's of that time.  My world was that of a nuclear, white, Christian family.  My hometown was a small, German, farming town in southern Illinois where there was only one church and one school in town, and they were both Lutheran.  We were taught the Bible not only on Sunday mornings, but in school each day. 

The longer I dwell on the past, though, I realize it's flaws.  People who did not fit into my nice little world were probably not nearly as happy as I, and had no accommodation.  It was a time of major civil unrest and I, not aware of those struggles, didn't understand (and still don't) how people could label anyone a lesser person just because of the color of their skin.  It didn't make sense to me. 

Viet Nam came and brought with it a whole other level of rebellion.  My world was changing quickly and it would never be the same. 

Now we find ourselves in a world where everyone speaks their mind about any subject.  We have so many different opinions about so many different problems and they are all broadcast 24-hours a day via CNN and FOX.  It is hard to stay joyful when you are being confronted on a moment-by-moment basis with so many reasons not to be!

But yet we are told to "consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds."  That's just where we are, isn't it?  Trials of many, many different kinds.  So where does our joy come from?  Our joy comes from the Holy Spirit, with the message that we have been given (1 Thessalonians 1:6). Our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:2).  We do not have a God who doesn't see what we are going through, either in our own personal lives, or in the life of our country, or of this world that we live in.  He knows - He understands - and He sees the end, which is actually the beginning! We have faith in God who is the Victor!

Right now it is raining in my little world --- always a beautiful thing in the Texas panhandle.  It is refreshing my soul, and I am joyful.