“Thanking The Trial”
Our family had just completed a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner. There were twelve of us seated around the table. Jerry, my son-in-law, asked each person to share what they were thankful for. The first one to volunteer was Gillian, my just turned six-year-old, granddaughter. She thanked God, by name, for everyone around the table, including her older brother and younger sister. She thanked God that Christmas was coming very soon. She got into such a thanksgiving spirit we thought she would never stop. Finally she paused for breath, and then came her last thank you. “Thank you God for me!”
This last thank you caught everyone by surprise. We could not stop smiling. She said it without any hint of boasting. But as I thought about it afterward I realized how mature beyond her years she was. Most people are so afraid of pride that we forget ourselves, yet God made each one of us. God has a plan for everyone present today.
No one was created by accident. So why should you not be thankful for you? Why should you not be thankful that God created you for a purpose? Why should you not be thankful that God gave you just the gifts and talents you needed to fulfill the purpose that He made you for? So let’s all say it this Thanksgiving time, “God, I give you thanks for me.”
Since God has a purpose for each one of us we should be filled with joy. Christians especially should be the most joyful people in the world because, to paraphrase the author of the book of Hebrews writing about the faith of Abraham, “we look forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). We don’t just look at this world. We know there is a better world coming
The word joy (Greek chara) appears fifty-nine times in the New Testament. The first recording is when the angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people,” (Luke 2:10). Matthew records that when the wise men “saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Matthew 2:10, NASB).
The Christian faith promises joy—pure joy. Not what people call happiness, but joy. Not health or wealth, but joy. Not an easy ride and fun, but joy. Peter reminds us “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Peter 1:8).
The seventy that Jesus sent out into the villages ‘returned with joy’ because of the new authority Jesus had given them. Later on great joy came in the city of Samaria when Philip preached the gospel and healed many people, “so there was great joy in the city” (Acts 8:6). Despite being persecuted and rejected the disciples of Jesus “were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52).
The kingdom of God is “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). The word rejoice” is used seventy-four times in the New Testament. Now I said that God promises us joy but not necessarily happiness. What is the difference? Words only have the meaning that a person gives to them. So I am defining happiness as a positive emotion, a feeling that is pleasant and positive. Joy I am defining as more a principle than a feeling. That when you may not be feeling happy you can still be filled with joy. Joy is knowing that you are safe in God, that God is in charge, that all things work together for good for all those who love God, and that eventually all the suffering and evil in this world will be utterly destroyed.
The best way to describe joy is to look at the experience of Jesus as he suffered on the cross. This was an extremely unpleasant experience. Here is how the bible describes one aspect of it, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Notice that Jesus was full of joy as he suffered on the cross. He was full of joy in pain, in suffering, in agony. Why was he full of joy? He was joyful because he knew there was a purpose to his pain. Purpose makes all the difference. His purpose was to save this world and the only way to save it was through pain and death, knowing that his death would save the world, save you and me. Jesus knew that his death would also make the universe secure for ever. Sin would never arise again. Never again would the universe know pain and suffering.
You have experienced similar emotions. Staying awake all night to support a dying person is not hard. Quitting eating candy is not really hard when you have decided to diet because you can visualize the good results. Sending out dozens of resumes is quite easy because you visualize the job you will eventually be offered. Putting your vacation money into savings that you will use as a down payment on your first house is not hard. And I could go on with more examples.
James when writing to Christians in the first century challenged them with this thought, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2).
What does James mean by a trial? Most people think of trials as bad, as something to be avoided? But that is not always the case. Next year the Olympic Games will be held in China. In order to compete in those games athletes must go through what are called Olympic Trials. Here trials do not mean something bad but something hard. These trials are intended to reveal who has the best chance of winning a gold medal at the Olympics.
I have here some flour, the kind you bake with. It is full of lumps and other impurities. I will not be able to bake a fine cake unless I sift these impurities out. As I sift the good stuff falls through the holes and all the undesirable stuff stays in the sieve.
God uses trials to sift us. Trials come to take away anything that is not right with us. And again how we approach the trial determines whether it is a joy or a hardship.
Alan Mairson wrote an article for National Geographic about beekeepers who raise and transport bees for a living. He told the story of Jeff and Christine Anderson and how their daughter overcome an allergy to bee stings. To build up her immunity, doctors administered a series of injections to Rachel over a four-month period. But, in order to maintain immunity, she needed a shot or a bee sting every 6 weeks. So every 6 weeks Rachel’s parents would go outside and catch a bee. Then, as Rachel recalls, “Mom would take hold of my arm and roll my sleeve up. Then my Dad would make the bee mad and stick it on me and count to ten before he took the stinger out. But it worked.
“Now when I accidentally get stung, it barely swells, it barely hurts.” Imagine how hard it must have been for those parents to know this was the only way to help their daughter live. In a world full of bees, a loving father must not shield his child from every sting. In fact, for the child’s own good the father must at times induce pain.
Is that why God sometimes allows pain and trials into our lives, not to hurt us but to heal us, not to make life more difficult but to make life better?
Eugene Peterson translates our text in James this ways, “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.” “A sheer gift.” When was the last time a trial came your way and you praised the Lord for that trial as a gift? It is easy at Thanksgiving time to focus on the good things and thank God for them but we need to remember that the bad things, the trials, can also be looked at in a positive way if we so choose.
Paul tells us in Romans 8:28, “that all things work together for good for those who love God.” He does not say that all things are good but he says that God will use the bad as well as the good to eventually bless us. Remember Rachel and the bee stings. Remember our sieve. Trials are the means by which God sifts out those things that are part of us that are not good, our pride, selfishness, gossiping spirit, critical nature, complaining attitude and so on.
James continues in his writing to explain why trials are necessary. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).
God wants all of us in heaven. But he does not want us to be in heaven as we are here. You would not want heaven to be a replica of this earth. There will be no sin in heaven, no pain, no evil, no disappointments. So if we are to be different in heaven that difference must begin in this life. But we are a stubborn lot. We don’t like to change. Change is hard work. Change can be scary. Change takes us out of our comfort zone. So, sometimes, God has to let trials come to us to force us out of our comfort zone, to cause us to rethink who we are, to cause us to persevere in learning to love Him more. James says in this passage that God wants us “mature and complete.”
Yes, we are saved by grace. Yes, salvation is a gift from God through the death of Jesus. Yes, there is nothing we can do to contribute to that gift. But at the same time we have to change from being the people we are to become the people that God wants us to be, a people that are loving and gracious just as He is. But again we don’t like to change and that is why God allows us to get kicked and getting kicked is usually painful.
A number of years ago I had to have surgery on my right knee to cut our some bone spurs and cartilage that had been damaged when playing soccer in high school. When being tackled I sometimes got kicked in the shins and on the knee. Getting kicked was never pleasant but it was part of playing soccer. It could not be avoided. If I was going to be a good soccer player I had to accept that being kicked went with the game.
In A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond tells about the birth of a giraffe: The first things to emerge are the baby giraffe’s front hooves and head. A few minutes later the plucky newborn is hurled forth, falls ten feet, and lands on its back. Within seconds, he rolls to an upright position with his legs tucked under his body. From this position he considers the world for the first time and shakes himself. The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over the calf. She waits for about a minute, then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels.
When it doesn’t get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts....Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs.
Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up! In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild
hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they’d get it too, if the mother didn’t teach her calf to get up quickly and get on with it!
What must have seemed very painful to the baby giraffe was actually for its good. The painful trials that come to us are there for our good if we will see them for what they are: part of the training for heaven, part of the change that God wants us to make so that we will not take to heaven the same habit patterns we have on this earth.
God never asks us to go through a trial that Jesus has not gone through. The author of Hebrews tells us that even Jesus “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:8-9).
Jesus had to mature, to grow, and he matured in the same way that God calls us to mature, through trials and sufferings. Now in Jesus case he was perfect. He never sinned. He had no impurities to weed out of his character yet he still suffered. If Jesus had to go through all this suffering why should any of us feel that we should be exempted?
R. T. Kendall, former pastor of Westminister Chapel in London, England, writes, “Any trial that God sends—death of a loved one or friend, financial reverse, loss, illness, misunderstanding, losing your keys, failure, disappointment, betrayal, abuse, unemployment, losing a job, mental or emotional depression, accident, loneliness, missing a train or plane, rejection, not getting that important invitation, toothache, a headache, or any physical pain—should be seen as having our Lord’s hand prints all over it.”
When we understand life this way we can then live by this admonition from Paul, “Be joyful always” (1 Thess. 5:16).
Here is where we began. If you have placed your trust in Jesus then you know that everything that happens is part of God’s sifting. He loves you so much he wants to get rid of all the undesirable traits in your character. When we accept this then life becomes pure joy because we know why these things happen to us and that depending on the attitude we come to them they can become a blessing rather than a curse.
Whenever something unpleasant happens remember the giraffe mother kicking her child so that he will live and when God kicks us it is so that we will love. So “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2).
