Those Trials and Tribulations

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By Jim DeAngelo

James 1:2-4 says to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” I have found this Scripture difficult to reconcile with my experiences and feelings as I’ve been through these events in my life. We all go through them, and it isn’t usually much fun. I understand it does change us, but I have found it is the rest of the Scripture that requires more understanding.

First, why should we count it all joy? As I have grown to understand these difficulties and subsequent challenges in my life, I realize I wasn’t seeing the situation correctly, from a Jesus perspective. In Hebrews 12:2 it says, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus saw the fulfillment of His ministry and the redemption of us, His children, and through that joy endured the cross.

When I see the benefit of the trial and the testing of my faith as the growing experience it is, I have a different expectation and view of the results. I see it as the benefit it is. I then find it easier to choose to take joy in the experience and to see the trial as a process that leads to perfected faith. I get to see how God uses them to bring me face-to-face with my issues, wrong thinking, problematic relationships, lack of faith, etc., as well as how the Holy Spirit works with me to bring it to conclusion. My faith grows and I find myself better equipped to rest in Jesus. As a friend of mine said the other day, we graduate to the next lesson.

How do I know if I am in a trial that is designed to produce steadfastness? All I have to do is check my emotions. If I am not in a place of peace and joy, but am experiencing anxiety, anger, fear, resentment, frustration — you get the picture — I am in the process of experiencing a trial. Sometimes they are short and sometimes they impact every aspect of our lives. God sees it through the prism of our transition to the image of His son Jesus and with eternity as the horizon. My challenge has been to broaden my view and attempt to see it His way instead of my way, which tends to focus on my comfort.

So, when the next trial comes, I ask you to join me and attempt to look at it through Jesus’s eyes and see it for what it is, a situation to grow me and promote me in my journey to a life of faith, lacking nothing, and, at the end of this life, to begin eternity with Jesus, the perfecter of my faith.

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