"Consider it all joy whenever you encounter trails"?

James 1:2 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, whenever you encounter various trials.”  I was listening to a sermon, unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the preacher (I listen to a lot of sermons), but he commented that James 1:2, taken at face value without reading the subsequent verses, is a very odd sentiment.  I don’t know about you, but when I encounter various trials, I don’t gleefully rub my hands together and enthusiastically shout, “I’m in a trial.  This is great!” 

Once again, as that pastor commented, we have to read on.  Verse 3: “knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (NASB).  I like the way J.B Phillips translates verse 4: “But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find that you have become men of mature character, men of integrity with no weak spots.”  Ladies, I know it sounds like he's only talking to men here, but this certainly applies to you as well!  

I always try to be empathetic regarding the trials that you, the reader, might be going through upon reading these words.  As I’ve said before, you might be going the most demoralizing trial you have ever faced in your life as you read this.  For you to contemplate thinking of it as something good and beneficial seems ridiculous, absurd, and perhaps even insulting.

I understand where you are coming from, but we have to go back to the Word and what it says.  In many places in the Bible (not just James 1), we learn about how God uses trials in our lives for His purposes. For just one example, I recently obtained great comfort from 1 Peter 1:7: “These [trials] have come so that your faith…may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

Granted, on a human level, we may never understand why God allowed us to go through these ordeals.  Consider Job; he never got his answer as to why he was suffering so acutely.  But you and I must trust God in the midst of the ordeal.  Job himself said, “Though he slay me, yet I trust him” (Job 13:15; NKJV).  May that be the sincere heart cry of all of us!

Kevin