James the Just - Part 2 - Count It All Joy

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  James 1:2-4

There is a difference between troubles that tempt us and those which test us.  The “troubles” of our text refers to a test; like when you get behind the wheel in a car you’re thinking about buying; it’s a test drive.  God never tempts us ^{(see James 1.13).}  Years ago, my seminary professor, Dr. Graham, shared that difference with his class.  He said that an easy way to remember the difference between a tempting and a testing is:

a temptation is from Satan, and it is designed to make you fall;

a test is from God and is designed to make you stand tall!

So, when you have a difficult time before you, pay close attention which direction you’re being driven.  If you’re being driven to fall-away from God and His kingdom, then it is designed to make you fall – a temptation…and it comes from the pit! 

On the other hand, if the difficult time creates a desire to find God’s direction – to compel you to prayer, and fellowship with believers for comfort, and Bible study for answers, that’s a test from God designed to make you stand tall.  

God is doing something; THAT’S why you can rejoice!

Mike Huckabee, Southern Baptist Pastor-turned-Governor, Presidential candidate, news commentator, tells about …a pastor in Florida who used to have count-it-all-joy parties every now and then.  He so believed this verse, that when he would face a difficult situation, he would call friends over to his house.  He'd say:

I want you to come over to my house for a party.  

They'd say, Oh, is it a birthday? Did you get a promotion?  What's the situation?  

Well, he'd say, I'm going through this incredibly difficult crisis right now, and I'm having a count-it-all-joy party.  We're going to celebrate the difficulty, because I know that this difficulty is going to bring something of special value to my life.   I don't know what it is yet, but I want you to come and count it all joy with me.

Have any of you ever thrown a count-it-all-joy party?  I haven't either.  To tell you the truth, it's tough to consider troubles joy, because it hurts. Yet, it's important to realize that unless there are tests, we’ll never know what our faith is made of.^[2]

It is hard to accept the difficult times but becoming mature in the faith demands those times.  The Message New Testament translates verse 4 this way:

So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.  James 1:4 (TMNT)

For You Today

We may kick and groan about difficulties in our lives, but often that is what God is using in His perfect way to change us into His useable servant. 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons
                          Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] Mike Huckabee, Practice of Patience, Preaching Today, Tape No. 78.