James 1:5-8
James calls us to count it all joy when we meet trials. “When – not if. It is certain that if we live long enough in this world we will suffer. We will be bereaved or cause others to be bereaved. We will enter circumstances that will have the ability to crush us, and yet, says James, there is a way of considering joy in those trials, and it is to realize that God is doing something, working to make us whole,” notes David Gibson in his book Radically Whole. He then cites C. S. Lewis’ wonderful illustration of how and why God works like this:
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself … If we let him … he will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a … dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly … his own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.” (Mere Christianity, 172)
If the end product is worth having, then the pain along the way is worth enduring. It is only if we want to be whole, to have every inner fracture healed, if we want to be perfect and complete, then we will think it worth enduring. However, James calls us to not only endure, but to consider our trials with joy (1:2). For some of the very best things emerge only after the most painful of experiences.
As God refines, purifies, tests, and perfects his people, he is bringing us to completion or wholeness. So, if we are going to endure these trials now, where do we find the grace or energy to count it all joy?
“If any of you lack wisdom, you should pray to God, who will give it to you; because God gives generously and graciously to all,” says James (1:5). Do you lack wisdom? Do you know the distinction between knowledge and wisdom? Join us this Lord’s Day as we distinguish wisdom from knowledge and learn how we can gain this wisdom that enables us to ‘count it all joy.’
For His Glory and Our Good,
Pastor Wayne