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 nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. ~James 1:2-8 ESV
The first thing that I noticed when I was reading this is the word “joy.” Denoting, that we are not to simply live and exist or go-through-the-motions, but to delight! To take joy in! To be in a state of happiness! Let me be clear on this though, it does NOT say that “nothing bad or hard will ever happen to you as a Christian. Everything will always be sunshine and roses, merry christmas, happy birthday, cheers.” NO! Not even close! It says to “count it all joy” meaning that it does not matter what is happening around you, or to you, or even, to the ones you care about the most; you are to find your joy and to find your delight in Christ! “Blessed is the man…his delight is the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1: 1a, 2)
We are all human, fallible and imperfect, and sometimes we just get MAD. It happens. People push the wrong button and slice through that last fraying nerve and you cannot see anything but blood red. What do you do? How are you supposed to find delight in that moment? Well, James actually addresses that too: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:19-21)
Meekness is not offended by correction so, Believers as a whole, should not be defensive. It only leads to selective hearing, skewed perceptions, miscommunications, and quarrelling, which in turn divides the House of God and Satan wins with its crumbling and believers scattering; each with a chip on their shoulder ready to carry over into their next experience.
We cannot control anyone but ourselves and it doesn’t matter how many times you scream, kick, hit, and yell at them. No one is going to be controlled by another person unless they are completely subservient and willing.
But if we are seeking Christ and finding our delight in him and meditating on His words day and night, then will not this verse simply become our nature? Yes! Absolutely! “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come… We are ambassadors for Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-17, 20a)
It should also be a comfort to Believers that through every trial we are producing steadfastness. If you define “Steadfastness” you will find “immovable,” “unwavering,” “determination,” and “not subject to change” among its descriptions. How cool is that? It does not matter if it is a fight with your neighbor, depression, losing a child, fighting cancer, or being falsely accused of a crime; YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT! It is not about your situation anyway! God uses the pettiness and sin in our lives and others to shape us, stretch us, and form us into the followers of Him that we are meant to be. Also, what good does it do to stew over it, to grow resentment and bitterness and anger? It is only hurtful to you! Staying in anger, bitterness, and resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It just is NOT going to happen and you end up with the ulcer – ONLY you.
Worrying about how everything is going to turn out is also God’s job. Not yours. Matthew 6: 25-27 says: “Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” and Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not evil, to give you a future and hope.” And also in Jeremiah 1:5 it says: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Enough said! God has it all worked out – LONG since before you were born! SO QUIT WORRYING! You are not going to make that dollar stretch farther, improve the grade on your test, shrink your hips, or magically make the gas in your car never run out by fretting over it!!
“Hindsight is 20/20.” Have you heard that saying? It is easy to see the big picture when you are looking back onto a situation, to see the connections that you missed in the moment, to clarify the miscommunications that caused the problem, etc… God is not bound by time and space. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He is all powerful, is everywhere, and is all knowing. For Him, our future is the same as the past. It is already planned out and everything is in place to make it happen and you are just one spoke on a wheel in a clock that has already been built. So why do we find it so hard to trust the one who already sees the big picture, who is looking at our road map, who has already made the clock? Because we are too busy being the backseat driver. That is why.
Going back to the original text in James 1, verse 4 says: “And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” Have you ever worked long and hard on a drawing of something until it was as perfect, by your hand, as it would ever become and then step back to admire it but notice another drawing on the wall by a sibling, framed and beautiful, and realize that it is ten times better than yours? I have. It is a sinking feeling of overwhelming inadequacy that cannot be described. I cried for a very long time after that and I burned the best drawing that I have ever done and probably ever will. Why? Because it was not perfect and it was sorely lacking in technique that I felt I could never accomplish and I could not stand to compare them.
The trials and issues that we have everyday allow Christ the opportunity to shape us and teach us. Whether it is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, or self-control (Galatians 5:22) we are being pulled toward Christ, by Christ, and the more time we spend seeking and immolating His actions the more we become like Him. And the more we become like Him the more we become like the Father. And the more we become like the Father the farther removed we become from this world and we will be able to see the big picture and perhaps even have compassion on those who try to press our buttons and severe that last nerve instead of instant anger. But as with all things, it takes time and practice. Therefore, we face repeating trials that are our training grounds and opportunities to implement what we say we believe and do; a chance to “walk to walk” and not to just “talk the talk.”
One thing that I find interesting is how many times I have heard Pastors preaching that God is selective about to whom He will give wisdom, inspiration, or direction. Sometimes it is simply implied indirectly and other times I have heard it as specifically as being told that you must pray in a certain way for a specific amount of times. I have heard people become angry at God because they prayed endlessly for a sign or for direction and God did not answer their prayer. I have even seen people walk away from Christianity because they were not hearing God speak to them like some others boasted that they did so that must mean that they are not as loved as the other person, or whatever excuse they may have. People come up with the CRAZIEST ideas! It is ridiculous a lot of times and would never hold up to logic and reason if they bothered to test it by opening their Bible. James 1:5 says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives without reproach, and it will be given him.” God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34) but rather He looks to the innermost heart of a man (1 Samuel 16:7). Any who ask of God in faith will receive.
But here is the catch, this is where people tend to cut things short and make their point but then they get offended when God doesn’t answer their request right away - keep reading in James 1:6-8. “But let him ask with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” WOW! That is about as black and white as it can be. Either you believe or you do not.
“MUST NOT suppose…” that is very emphatic, direct, and strong language. To understand the severity of this statement let’s define the word “suppose.” It means: to assume, hypothesize, or predetermine based on [nothing but] your own opinion. Does that change the way you read that verse now? “…That person must not suppose/assume that he will receive anything from the Lord...” To suppose something of anyone almost sounds arrogant and silly now does is not?
I once heard a mnemonic to recall the spelling of the word “assume” that really stuck with me. And please pardon the language here. “To assume is to make and ASS of U and ME.” When I read the word “suppose” I immediately associate it with “assume” and to assume anything of God and that He would bow to serve our every whim is to quite literally make and fool of ourselves.
What would be the profit to us if we were given everything that we asked for in every situation regardless of whether we needed or wanted it? Ever meet or hear of a person who was like that and handed everything on a silver platter? We all can recall the spoiled child, Veronica, on Willy Wonka “I WANT A SQUIRREL, DADDY! GIVE ME ONE! NOW!!” A ridiculous over exaggeration of what we do with God, but we plea and bargain: “Oh please God, I need this. If you just give me this new job I will put half my paycheck in the offering every week! I just need a job, God, PLEASE!” Whatever the situation we have a bargain and we have a price but we never follow through. Or maybe we are just not willing to give up the one last thing that is necessary. Often, that is our pride. If you need a job so bad why not walk into McDonald’s or Wal-Mart and get one? It is a job! Not the highest of occupations to be sure, but it can be done with respect to you and that company and no one should ever be ashamed of a minimum wage job.
Going back a bit to 2 Corinthians 5:20a “We are ambassadors for Christ” so if we were given all that we asked for, what would that say about God? Isn’t is like giving the child all the ice cream and sugar they want before dinner every night and staying up with tummy aches and hyperactivity and never learning! Then, the child is a teenager with diabetes and highly overweight! Who is at fault for that?! Is it the child for wanting sweet stuff all the time and then crying about not getting it? Or is it the Parent’s fault for not controlling what the child did and did not get and guiding that behavior for the benefit of the child later?
God is looking out for us even when we are blinded by the immediate desire for that shiny new thing. Again, going back a bit to Jeremiah 29:11b: “plans for welfare and not evil, to give you a future and hope.” God is not going to let us walk into a snake filled pit and die. He just will not. 2 Corinthians 10:13 says “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
God is faithful! He will not abandon you and nothing that you are going through is new. It is “common to man.” Meaning that someone else out there has gone through the exact same thing! And notice though how at the end of the verse it says “to endure it” NOT “to escape it.” Why do you think that is?
“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 nothing.” (James 1:3b-4)!! We should NOT WANT to escape our trials! Is that not backwards or what?! When the fall of man occurred I am convinced that everything in our brains got entirely reversed. Left is right but right is left and right is wrong because wrong it right. Ever feel that confused? I do. But it is really that simple!
Our flesh is going one way but our spiritual walk is going the complete opposite way and we have to make the conscious choice every day to follow Christ and with that to kill the desires and lifestyle of our flesh. Galatians 2:20-21 says: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
The last thing I want to point out and going back, again, to 2 Corinthians 5:20a “We are ambassadors for Christ” that means that we are to be an example for God on this earth. We are branded with His seal, we claim His name, we speak with His power, and we declare His authority, glory, and reign. Until we lose focus and take our eyes off Christ; until we doubt.
To be “like a wave tossed and driven by the wind” (James 1:7) is a VERY scary place to be. Have you ever been flipped, dumped, or made to stumble by a strong wave? I was repeatedly crashed into the surf when I was young by some fairly strong waves, I scratched my knees and hands on shells in the sand and I swallowed nearly my weight in salt water. I thought, for a short moment, that I was not going to survive. It was very traumatic for me and I did not go back into the water that day. After a night’s rest, I couldn’t resist and I was back in the waves. I love the water still. However, I know what it feels like to be completely at the mercy of the surf. Scary. In the biblical times their storms were much scarier and they were much further out to sea than what I experienced on a beach on the Outer Banks. I picture that TV show ‘Deadliest Catch’ and imagine it is a bit more like that.
You cannot second guess God. Either you believe Him, believe IN Him, or you do not. You cannot fool Him and you cannot bargain with Him. Doubting God is a bigger issue than just believing or not believing in His existence too, it is the question of ‘do you trust God completely enough to obey?’ That is where I and many, many others struggle. Trust. It is a hard thing to give once someone so maliciously burned that bridge one time too many. But that is a human characteristic that we tend to project onto God unfairly. He is not human and He is perfect. God does not lie and God’s plans for us are “for welfare and not for evil” (Jeremiah 29:11b).
Another major issue of struggle is speech. There are a whole lot of verses written all throughout the bible about controlling your tongue and learning to be silent and the wisdom of thinking before speaking. That alone should tell you that it is something quite important to God. But there is one verse that I think is the true epitome of all of them. 1 Peter 4:11. This verse felt like a punch in my stomach from God the first time I really read it and ever since then He has been reminding me with it whenever I realize that I am talking too much, about to breach concern into gossip, and many other scenarios. As ambassadors we should take every minute of every day extremely seriously. Not that we cannot laugh and have a blast enjoying life, we are to delight in the life God has given us but we are to have a level of sober-minded rationality that is always reminding us of our number one objective on this earth. To serve Christ.
So let me end with this quote and words of encouragement: It does not matter what you are going through and how bad it looks. Trusting in God is easy when you realize that He has already made the clock and all we have to do is throw up our hands and enjoy the ride. (This does not mean be lazy! But we are not to worry and stress about silliness!) There is a point to this trial and God will give you the outlet for your frustration and the strength to endure and if you are overwhelmed and confused. Pray. And if you lack the wisdom for a decision. Pray. But never doubt God! You are an ambassador! So…“If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4: 11)
