Consider it PURE joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But 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. James 1:2-8Well, compared to others, I may not have had to face many “serious” trials in my Christian life, as of yet, but for the ones I’ve faced, I can honestly say that any joy I have mustered during the trials I have had has been mixed with joy…and some other “stuff.” That’s not what the Bible says though. It’s supposed to be a PURE joy. And I’m supposed to “consider it” which means to actually take time to think on it. (How easy it is to not focus on a problem because I don’t want to have to deal with it and simply hope it will just go away, tackling it only when I have no other choice but to confront it!)
I spent some time in deep prayer recently trying to wrestle with why I am feeling and thinking some things. These are feelings and thoughts that I am familiar with from long ago, and am feeling and thinking them again. Because of my familiarity of them I know that, if I let them continue, they will deteriorate my spiritual health. I’ve had these feelings before and I know where they take me if I don’t deal with them. (and I’m intent on going forward…NEVER backwards!!!)
Ignoring them only makes things worse. But focusing on them creates this debaucherous mindset that, in the past, takes over nearly every thought for some length of time. I SOOO didn’t want to go back to that so this morning I began digging into it at a spiritual level. I began peeling away the physical mask of this world so I could see more clearly what may really be going on. (For me…this is growth.)As the picture became a little clearer, I realized that some things were definately “out of focus” and I needed to go deeper. So I asked God for wisdom. This request, naturally, threw me right into James 1 (which is at the top of this document). And so I prayed for even more wisdom, the kind of wisdom that would help me see clearly what was going on.
As I prayed, I began doing what seems to have helped me over the last several months when I’ve needed the Spirit to reveal something to me about a passage. I began saying smaller parts of the passage over and over again until the thoughts and insights start flooding in. I started thinking about the phrase “pure joy” that, according to James 1, I am supposed to have while my faith is tested and while the Lord works to develop my perseverance. And then another thought struck me. How many times do I see the word “joy,” or some variation of it, throughout the Scriptures? Yet, as I was thinking about it, I found that there are a TON of passages that maintain the theme of having “joy through struggles.” A cursory word search brought me to these awesome passages:
· Jesus – for the joy set before Him endured the cross (Heb. 12:2)
· Jesus – rejoice and LEAP of joy because of persecution (Luke 6:23)
· Paul – be filled with joy as we trust God (Rom. 15:13
· Paul – joy knows no bounds in all his troubles!!! (2 Cor. 7:4)
· Paul – joy overflowed out of the most severe trial!!! (2 Cor. 8:2)
· Paul – Thessalonians welcomed the message in spite of severe suffering (1 Thes. 1:6)
· Paul – consider it pure joy when facing trials
Granted, there are many more passages that say that we should have joy because awesome things are happening. But that’s kind of obvious and relatively easy. The point is that the message of “joy during trials” cannot be overlooked.
SIDE THOUGHT: There is one passage that I came across that caught me by surprise. Jesus says in John 16:20-22 that my pain, anguish and grief are actually supposed to give birth to joy. Yet, how easy it is to just bull my way through my pains, anguishes, griefs, and struggles and get them over with. But what does that produce? If I don’t take advantage of achieving the vast wealth of spiritual growth that is available to me during my trials, then the trials become nothing but…well…trials. YIKES!
I’ve always read at the James 1 passage and saw the word “joy” and thought, “Well…(sigh)…ok…here goes…I’ll submit and be joyful during my trails if I have to.” But this morning it hit me that the adjective “PURE” is thrillingly important in this passage. When I think of the word “pure” I find myself transported to a body of water, cleaner than anything on earth. No pollutants. No algae or bacteria. Just PURE water. And my joy during trials is supposed to be a clean, pure, unadulterated joy. What a higher call that was for me, this morning.
Philip. 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Jinkies, Scooby! There it is again. “Finally, brothers…whatever is PURE…THINK ABOUT such things.” If my joy is supposed to be pure, and I am supposed to think/consider it as such, then what an amazing opportunity for growth is sitting before me!
So, although I haven’t figured out all of what is going on with these old feeling/thoughts cropping up again, I’ve decided that I’m going to hold on to the promises of God (which are all “yes” in Christ, AMEN!? [2 Cor. 1:20]), strap my spiritual seat belt on, and enJOY the ride! (c) 2013 Jeff Morris