John & Abigail Adams are one of my favorite couples from history. He was, of course, the 2nd President of the United States, and they were both Christians. He was away from home a lot, either serving in Congress or on diplomatic missions, so they wrote a lot of letters back & forth, which have been preserved in a book, called My Dearest Friend, which is the way they would always address each other in their letters: “My Dearest Friend.” Once Abigail wrote to John about some difficulties they were facing at home, but then she added:  “I hate to complain. No one is without difficulties, whether high or low in life, and every person knows best where their own shoe pinches.”  (David McCullough, John Adams, p. 423) 

There’s a lot of truth to what she said, isn’t there? NO ONE is without difficulties. (And that’s a great expression: “every person knows best where their own shoe pinches”!) We ALL have difficulties. Who doesn’t?  We could scan down the list of all the members and families in our church today, and see that many of us are going through various trials. Some of us would say today, “Count ME in that number; I am going through the fire right now too!” We ALL do at various times. If we’re not “going through the fire” right now — we will be soon! We all go through trials in life.

That’s why I believe the message we are looking at today is an important one for many of us, because ALL of us have either been through a trial, are in one now, or WILL be in one soon! When James wrote the first words of instruction in his book, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” he was writing to people like US! The first-century Christians James addressed in his book were facing suffering; there’s evidence of that all through this book. Much of the Book of James deals with how God’s people, those who have genuine faith, are to respond to the trials that we face. They show us “What Tested Faith Looks Like”:

 I. The Certainty of Trials

He begins by saying, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials”  It is significant that he says: “WHEN you encounter various trials” – for there is no question that you are going to face them! It is not “if”, but “when”! 

We really need to get into the mindset of expecting that we are going to have trials. Unfortunately, many of us have gotten into the bad habit of thinking that the goal of life is to go along without any difficulties or obstacles, and we view trials as “unexpected intruders.” We need to ditch that kind of immature and unrealistic thinking. Where did we get that idea? We didn’t get it from the word of God. God NEVER promised us that “all will be smooth sailing” – in fact, what Jesus DID promise is that “in this world, you will have tribulation”!

I Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you” He says there, “don’t be surprised.” But we are surprised, aren’t we? For some reason we often seem surprised when something hard, or painful or difficult happens to us. “You had a trial?  Oh really?! What a shocker!” Of COURSE you did! That’s what happens in this world!

It would be like a young man going out for football for the very first time, and going out to the practice field, and getting knocked down by one of the other players. What if he came running back to you on the sideline, crying, “He knocked me down!”? You’d say, son, that’s what happens out there! You had better expect that in football. Getting hit in football should not be a surprise! 

Many of us need to get the same mindset about our lives. We are going to get hit in this life; we are going to get hurt. This world is not heaven; the sooner we realize that, the better off we will be. THIS is not that place of perfect rest and health and circumstances. This is not where you get “your best life now”! If you’re a Christian, your best life is in GLORY with the Lord. And this is not that place. So don’t be surprised when you have trials here on earth. We’ve been told they WILL happen here! It is not a matter of “if,” James says, it is “WHEN”. “WHEN you encounter various trials.” 

Now these inevitable trials are of different kinds: James calls them here “various” trials – which means that some are of one kind; and some are of another. Some are financial trials; some are family-related trials; some trials are of the heart; some are of the senses; some are related to persecution we experience as Christians. You may have some of those trials, and I may have others of them. But each of us WILL have some of these “various trials.”  We should all expect them.    

The Jewish wisdom writer Sirach wrote: “My son, when thou comest to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation. Set thy heart aright and endure firmly, and be not fearful in time of calamity … accept whatsoever is brought upon thee, and be patient in disease and poverty. For gold is proved in the fire, and men (are proved) acceptable to God in the furnace of affliction.”

Words like those should be shared with every person who makes a commitment to Christ. Your faith WILL be tested in the furnace of affliction to see if it is real. Watch for it; expect it. Don’t act like some strange thing is coming upon you, as Peter said. You WILL be tested! Trials are a certainty.

II. Our Response To Trials

So if our trials are certain, one might say, “Ok, then let’s ‘grin & bear it.’”  Let’s get this over with. That might be the world’s attitude towards trials.  Summed up in a word, they might say something like, “trials are necessary but bad.” James says that is NOT the attitude of the follower of Jesus towards trials. As in so many things, our attitude is to be exactly the OPPOSITE of the world’s. He says we are to “count it all joy” instead. 

This theme of rejoicing in trials is found repeatedly in the word of God:

— Romans 5:3 “We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance proven character, and proven character hope …”. 

— I Peter 1:6 “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, maybe found to result in praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

— Psalm 4:7 “You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine abound.” The world rejoices when they have plenty of grain & wine – in other words, when circumstances are good. But the Bible says the Christian can rejoice even in what people would call “bad” circumstances of trials and difficulties. 

Now, that doesn’t mean we should be some kind of “masochists” and try to make ourselves happy to suffer. Rather this is a response of faith. He says “CONSIDER it all joy.” The word “consider” here indicates that it’s a response of faith. The trial does not “look” good”; it doesn’t “feel” good; we aren’t denying that. But by faith we choose to believe that there is something good behind it; that God is doing good and amazing things through it (which we’ll talk about in just a moment). But we are to respond to our trials with joy. 

A young lady who was having some problems once wrote to John Newton, the former slave trader who got saved, and who wrote the famous hymn, “Amazing Grace.” Newton shared with her his testimony of how God helped him to rejoice, even in his trials. He wrote:

“With His presence in our hearts, we might be comfortable and happy if shut up in one of the cells of Newgate (prison): without it, the most select company, the most desirable opportunities, prove but clouds without water.” (John Newton to Miss Delafield, Letters of John Newton, Josiah Bull, ed., pp. 189-190) 

Newton said, we can rejoice in whatever circumstances we are in, IF we know that God’s presence is with us. BUT THIS IS AN IMPORTANT POINT HERE; don’t miss it: James says “Count it all joy MY BRETHREN.” When he says “my brethren,” he’s speaking to people who are committed followers of Jesus Christ, like we talked about last week; people who are committed to the “Lord, Jesus, Christ.”  It’s only THAT person who can know for sure that God is doing something profitable through their trials. People are often fond of quoting Romans 8:28, that “God causes all things to work together for good,” but they ignore the rest of the verse: “TO those who love God, and who are called according to His purpose.” You have to know for sure that you are truly a follower of Christ for this to be true for you.  

So let me ask you: Do you know that?  Have you ever realized that you have sinned against God, and have you trusted that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins, and committed your life to Him as your Lord? If that hasn’t happened to you, then that’s the first step that you need to take to deal with your trials do today. Once you know that Jesus is your Lord & Savior, and that you belong to Him, then you can rejoice no matter what you go through, because you know that He is using everything that happens in your life for His good purposes — which we’re going to talk about right now!

III.  God’s Purpose for Trials

This may be the most important section today, for many of us. What ARE God’s purposes for the trials that we are going through? As we mentioned last week, James was writing to Jewish Christians, many of whom had grown up with the traditional Jewish outlook, that suffering is caused by one’s sin, therefore if you suffer, there’s shame and regret in it. People like that believe that God’s purpose for our suffering is to punish us for what we have done. Now, there IS some suffering which we bring upon ourselves, right; we can’t discount that. 

For example, Joe McKeever, a retired pastor friend of mine, wrote in his blog in January, 2010:  

“Drunk and speeding and going around a curve on a country road, Edward slammed his car into a tree. Doctors told me he was lucky to be alive, that he had broken almost every bone in his body. The woman in the car with him was killed. When he recovered to the point where he could speak, Edward said to me, “Brother Joe, why did God do this?” I said, “He didn’t, my friend. You did this all by yourself without any help from Him.”

So there definitely IS suffering that we bring upon ourselves, no doubt.  Some of you may be suffering today, and there’s no mystery about the cause of it; you are very well aware of the sin or the foolish choices you made that brought your suffering upon you.

But the Bible also makes it very clear that not all suffering is a result of our personal sin. In John 9, the disciples asked Jesus who had sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind, and Jesus answered, “Neither.” He was saying that not all suffering is a result of sin. James says here that as a Christian, you are to have a different perspective on trials, because you believe that if God allows it, then He must have a good purpose for it. So let’s look at some of the purposes God has for our trials:

A.  They test the genuineness our faith. 

James calls it here “the testing of your faith.” Our faith must be tested. We have said many times that not everyone who claims to have saving faith in Jesus really does. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Many make what we call “professions” of aith, but far fewer truly have “possession” of saving faith. There is a sifting process which must place, which God uses to “sort out” those who truly believe and those who do not. And that “sifting” takes place through the fire of trials. This is just what God’s word teaches us:

— I Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing.”

— I Peter 1:6 “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

Peter, who was writing to another group of Christians who were experiencing trials, made it clear that the trials they faced were just like the refining “fire” which tests and purifies silver and gold. The trials we undergo are a very necessary process for demonstrating the reality of our faith.

This hit me some time ago, when I received a prayer request from my sister, who works as a missionary in Southeast Asia. She said that 8 new people had made professions of faith there, but that now they were being persecuted by the authorities. At first I started praying that they would be spared persecution, but as I was praying, the Lord reminded me that He has a purpose for this: these people had just made professions of faith in Jesus, so now this trial was necessary to test their faith, to see if they were really committed to Jesus or not. Should I pray for them NOT to come to a time of testing of their faith? NO! This testing MUST happen; they MUST go through the fire in order to prove their faith. And it’s not only those Southeast Asians. This has to happen in the life of every Christian.

You may know someone who is going through this very thing right now.  They are really “going through the fire”, and you feel sorry for them, and you might wish they didn’t have to go through it – but they HAVE to!  You can’t pray for them to avoid this; the faith of every believer has to be tested in the fire.

And the same thing is true for us too. Our faith is tested by the trials we face, to show whether it is genuine or not. Suffering has a way of laying bare what you really believe. You don’t play little “religious games” when you are suffering. If your faith isn’t real, it goes out the window when difficulties come.

When I got sick in 2012 and was bedfast most of the year, and eventually lost my job, and we had to sell our home and many of our possessions, my personal faith was tested: do I still believe, even if I can’t preach, even if I can’t have a full-time ministry? Is this just a “job” for me, or do I really believe these things for myself? Through the “fire” of that trial, I found that in my lowest moments, that answer for me was YES, I do believe this. My faith was tested by that fire. And there may be others of us today who are in that same kind of place right now. God is letting you go through the fire of testing, to prove that your faith is real. So prove that it’s real! Believe in Him; hold to your faith in Christ in this time. Say with Job, “Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him”! Let the fire of the trial show you and the watching world that your faith is real.

B. They grow and mature us.

James says: “The testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” The word “endurance” here is the Greek word “hupomene”: “hupo” meaning, “under”, and “meno,” meaning “to abide.”  It’s a picture of someone “abiding under;” “persevering” underneath a heavy load.

But James says the endurance which we build under trials is not the end; it is a means to the end: he says: “Let endurance have its perfect result THAT (which is a purpose word) THAT you may be PERFECT and complete.” God’s goal for our trials, James says here, is that they will help us to become “perfect and complete.” Now, the word “perfect” here does not mean what we often think of with the word “perfection.” It’s the Greek word “teleios”, which means, “mature.” This word is used of a plant which has grown up to bear fruit, or an animal which is “full grown.” So he’s not saying that trials will make us “perfect”; he’s saying they will make us “mature.” Our trials grow us and mature us in our faith.

God’s goal for us is to grow to spiritual maturity. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:13 that He wants us to grow “to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” God wants us to become like Christ in spiritual maturity. But how do we get there? Christlike spiritual maturity only comes as we go pass through the “fire” of trials. It will not happen any other way.

We as Christians need to understand that spiritual maturity is God’s goal for our lives. His goal for us is NOT for us to sit around and be “fat & happy”! Now, if many of us were honest, we’d say that our goal for life is that we just want to be “happy”, we want nothing bad to happen, and we want everything to just go smoothly and without any problems. But I have to tell you: that is not God’s goal for your life! God’s goal for you is to become spiritually mature; to become like Jesus. And He also knows that you will never be mature and like Christ if you never face trials. 

So, far from seeing our difficulties as “bad”; we should see them as part of God’s growth process for our lives. For most of us, this involves putting on  a whole different mindset. Our tendency is to think that things that are “hard,” are “bad.” But instead, we should think of our trials as like weight lifting. Lifting weights is hard, but when you do it, it builds your muscles.  And that is what God does in our lives through our trials; He is building our “spiritual muscles.” He’s maturing us and making us more like Christ.

Some time ago, a friend sent me a story which illustrates this truth, called “The Cocoon”:

“A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.  One day a small opening appeared,  he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily.  But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body … Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.”

Without the struggle, that butterfly would never grow to maturity and fly.  And God knows that the same thing is true for us: without our trials, we will never mature or grow stronger. That is my own personal testimony. After I was sick in 2012, I finally got better. But I wrote a few years later:

There are lessons I would never have learned had I not suffered.

There are scriptures that would never have come alive had I not suffered.

There are prayers I would never have prayed had I not suffered.

There is confession that would never have been made, had I not suffered.

There are sermons I would never have preached had I not suffered.

There are ministries I would never have had, had I not suffered

There are people who would not have been blessed, had I not suffered.

There is a maturity that would never have come to me had I not suffered.

There is praise that would have never been given to God, had I not suffered.

So I could look back after that time of suffering for me, and say with Psalm 119, “It was GOOD for me that I was afflicted.” 

And the same thing is true for you, too. Your suffering is not meaningless. God is using your suffering and your trials to grow you, mature you, and make you more like Jesus. Know that, and purposefully work together with Him in your trials: be sure to read your Bible every day and see what He has to say to you; make sure you stay in church, where He can speak to you — and also use you to minister to others. Don’t waste your suffering; make sure it truly IS a time of spiritual growth. That’s one of the reasons why God has allowed it in your life.  

 3) Our trials give us a chance to glorify God

Another reason we can “count it all joy” when we experience trials is that we can glorify God through them. Many people regard an absence of suffering as a sign of God’s blessing upon a person. But that’s not what we often see in scripture. Job was one of God’s most choice servants, and it was actually because he WAS one of God’s most favored servants, that God allowed him the privilege of suffering, to honor Him before the watching angels!  And think about the Lord Jesus: God allowed the One He loved more than anyone else, to suffer the most! So it’s not that if He loves you, He won’t allow you to suffer. It’s more like the opposite is true. 

It’s truly a privilege when God allows us to suffer for His sake. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:29 “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Paul says, this is a gift; this is a privilege!

Samuel Rutherford, who pastored in Scotland in the 1600’s, wrote to one of his parishioners who was been arrested for his faith: “And because you are the first man in Galloway called out, and questioned for the name of Jesus, His eye hath been upon you, as upon one whom He designed to be among His witnesses. Christ hath said, Alexander Gordon shall lead the ring, in witnessing a good confession; and therefore He hath put the garland of suffering for Himself, first upon your head.” (Rutherford’s Letters, p. 55)

Rutherford was saying, Alexander Gordon, God has chosen YOU to glorify Him through this trial. Now I know some of us may say, “Well then I don’t want that ‘privilege’!” Hey, I understand that. I read recently where C.S. Lewis wrote to Sheldon Vanauken about some trials he was going through. He said, “Remember the vision of our Lord to St. Theresa (when He said about her trials) ‘This is how I always treat My friends.’’ Lewis told Vanauken, “I must not conceal her answer, (she said) ‘Then, Lord, it is not surprising that You have so few”!   (C.S. Lewis, Yours, Jack, p. 257)

So I get that. None of us WANTS to suffer. But if you belong to Christ, then I know that in your heart of hearts, if you knew that God would be glorified in your life, in some way, by your suffering, that you would say, “Yes Lord. I’ll do that. I’ll glorify You by my suffering.” Any true Christian, who realizes what Jesus did for them, would say that. If God wills it, it can be OUR privilege: through the way we live in our illnesses, our trials, our persecutions, our hardships; we can declare to the angels and to the watching world that our God is worthy! Mark Dever once said that we can sing at the top of our lungs for 100 million years in heaven, but we won’t have this privilege there: of demonstrating in our trials here on earth that our God is sufficient!  We can glorify God in our trials.  

CONCLUSION:

So we can rejoice in our trials, because they give us the opportunity to demonstrate that our faith is genuine; because they give us an opportunity to grow spiritually, and most of all, they give us a chance to glorify our God. There’s so much good that comes out of trials, that you’d think if we were really, really spiritually mature, that we would indeed “count it all joy” when we encounter various trials. 

Robert Browning Hamilton wrote a poem entitled, “I Walked A Mile With Pleasure”:

I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When sorrow walked with me.

Your trials, as difficult as they may be, are not “bad”, and they are never wasted – IF you know that you belong to the Lord, and if you will seek to learn from them, and to glorify Him through them. It takes a mature attitude to see things that way, but James says, that is “What Tested Faith Looks Like”!

INVITATION

You have either been through a trial, are in one now — or will soon be in one!  The question is: how are you facing it? What are you getting out of it?  Don’t let your trial be “wasted.” Make sure you let God’s purposes be fulfilled in what you are going through:

— let them show how your faith is real

— let them grow and mature you

— and make sure you glorify God in them. 

Some of us need to spend some time right now, talking with God about the trial you are going through — or the trials that a loved one of yours is going through. Do that ….

Or maybe you’d say, I don’t really know for sure that I am one of the “brethren” that James talked about, who knows for sure that Jesus is their Savior, who knows that all these things are working together for good in my life — because I don’t know Him for sure. You can know it. Ask Him to forgive your sins and be your own Lord & Savior right now!