Establish my footsteps in Your Word ~ Psalm 119:133

There are plenty of books for sale that would be classified in the genre of Christian Living. While some of these may be of benefit to the believer, they would hardly compare to the book of James in the Bible in terms of the practical Christian life. It literally is one of the original Christian Living books. 

James, the brother of our Lord, wastes no time in getting down to business. Right after a short greeting in this letter, he launches into how Christians ought to respond to trials. Of all the many topics that James could have started with, he begins by telling the readers that trials are a good thing. The first century recipients of this letter were Jewish people who were scattered because of persecution against them in their homeland. They apparently were still experiencing difficulty as a result of the persecution and so James has a few words for them… and for us. 

Trials are universal among believers. Christians are not immune to trials. In fact, for many Christians, life is a series of hardships all strung together. James recognizes this and wants to address it immediately. A trial in its most basic sense is a situation or circumstance, varying in severity and length, that may cause discomfort, pain, uncertainty, and possibly taking serious physical and emotional toll. 

James says that we’ll experience different kinds of trials in our lives and he says we should respond with… joy?

Why Trials?

There are many reasons why Christians experience trials. We could say that they put us in a position where we’re totally dependent on the Lord. We might say that trials help us to examine our lives and re-adjust our priorities. While these are certainly true, I think a glimpse at 1 Peter 1:6-7 reveals one of the main reasons why God allows trials in our lives. In this portion of scripture, Peter says that it may be necessary for us to be ‘distressed by various trials’ in order to validate our faith, which brings about praise to God! 

Why trials then? Peter answers, “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 and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). 

For an ingot of gold to be made pure, it has to go through an intense refining process. To get the best yield of precious metal, contaminants must be removed in a series of melting processes in specialized furnaces. The by-products of this operation include slag that is eventually skimmed off the top and also extremely harmful mercury vapors. Some of these fumes are so toxic that they may be fatal! The operation takes time, but once it is complete, the piece of gold has become physically and cosmetically more valuable because of its purity. 

I work in a steel mill. The products we ship include shiny, high quality flat-rolled material which is extremely useful to the final customer in a wide variety of applications. But the finished steel didn’t start that way. The raw materials used in making the products at our plant are old rusty pieces of scrap metal that are melted down and poured into a large, heavy, rough slab. The slab is then squeezed and pressed until it is thin enough to then be rolled into piece of finished steel. This process requires heat and pressure. Turning ugly chunks of beat up old metal into something that a customer can use requires pressing and shaping and trimming and cutting and testing. Eventually that product becomes a piece of a washing machine or a part on car or a component in an electric transformer. 

Trials are not a random thing. Nothing is unplanned or unforeseen with the Lord. There is nothing unintentional. Trials are useful tools in the hand of God to bring about His own praise and honor and glory. God’s furnace of trials are intended to separate the gross impurities from us… applying heat and pressure to us, trimming and testing us… in order to bring us into shining conformity to His precious Son, Jesus Christ. 

The Best Response to Trials 

James instructs his readers that they are to respond to trials with joy. Let’s be honest. That is the opposite of our first reaction. When a trial comes our way, the last thing on our minds is, ‘Yay! Another trial! How exciting!’. But what James has in mind is the good that results from the trial. Hardships by their very definition are not fun. Picnics are fun. Parties are fun. Games and food are fun. Trials definitely are not fun. They have a way of ruining our day, or week or month, but they serve great purposes to the Christian that is willing to be trained by them. 

James says we will encounter ‘various’ trials. It’s another way of saying ‘multi-colored’ or ‘many different shapes and degrees’. What he is trying to convey is that each trial we face will be different from one we’ve already experienced. And our trial is different from those of our family members or friends. Some trials are short and some are long. Some are very severe and some maybe not so much. But something that all trials have in common is that they inconvenience us. They have no consideration for our timetable. They come at us like a freight train and we never seem to be ready for them. 

The Fruit of Trials 

The Christian is to respond to trials with a geniune attitude of joy because there is going to be fruit for the one who perseveres under the trial (James 1:12). To persevere under a trial means to ‘remain under’ it. That is, we submit to the trial by going through it with the Lord’s help. There aren’t any shortcuts, no going around, no going over or under… but rather push through it knowing that the Lord is there to show us the way. In fact, James even says ‘if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God’ (1:5). When we ask for God’s wisdom in a trial, the Bible says that God will give it to us generously! God is right there, supplying more wisdom that we’d ever need for persevering under the trial. And when we push through all the hardship and the grueling test of our faith, God will produce endurance within us. This quality is needful for us, because another trial is coming and having a spirit of endurance is going to come in handy! 

And not only will we develop endurance, but as endurance matures, we also mature as Christians. Verse 4 says that we become ‘perfect and complete, lacking in nothing’. God is at work in believers who are submitting to their trials. There is a maturity and fullness in a person who has been seasoned by life’s hardships. This is an amazing work of God! When we view trials in this manner, now we’re able to see why we should respond with joy… because God is shaping us into complete Christians, fitting us for His work. He is refining us in His fire in order to bring about His own praise and honor and glory!

How to Persevere in a Trial 

1). Trust God. Isn’t this what faith is about? God isn’t just working in our lives when things are all rosy. God is at work even when we don’t understand what He’s up to. Be assured, He knows what He is doing! Remember Proverbs 3:5, ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding’. 

2). Ask God for wisdom. As this passage in James says, we should go to God with full faith, asking Him to show us how to navigate through each of our hardships. He hasn’t left us out on a limb to fend for ourselves. We can find the wisdom of God in His Word, which is able to instruct us (2 Timothy 3:16) and build us up (Acts 20:32). 

3). Pray with someone else. We find great encouragement to persevere when someone else is walking through hard times with us. We should bear one anothers burdens (Galatians 6:2), weep when they weep and rejoice when they rejoice. What better way to do this than to approach God’s throne together? 

4). Don’t lose heart. Exercise patience and be encouraged, knowing that things will not always be as they are. Continue to forge ahead in your faith and do not grow weary (Galatians 6:9). God causes all things, including trials, to work for the believer’s good and for His own glory (Romans 8:28) and so giving up is not an option for a Christian. We must persevere to the end by keeping our eyes on the prize. Motivation to persevere through trials is found in a promise from God: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial; for once he had been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:14). The crown of life, which is also mentioned in Revelation 2:10, is referring to some sort of reward or honor bestowed upon the one that perseveres. It’s okay to seek rewards from the Lord, knowing that someday we’ll get to cast our crowns at the feet of Jesus. What an honor!

5). Remember who you are. In Christ, we are more than a conquerors (Romans 8:37)!