Ravi was born in 1953 in India into a family of wealth as they were in the second-highest caste, lower only than the priests. Destined for comfort and great opportunities, he was a devout Hindu. The village rejoiced with the family at his birth, especially since male children were seen as a treasure by the Indian culture. But at the age of three, Ravi was stricken with polio. His parents were devastated. They spent a fortune giving Ravi the best of medical treatment. At one point, the young boy spent nine months in a total body cast. But his condition did not improve. Abandoning medical solutions, his parents turned to the village gods. His father had two expensive temples built for the gods. Yet, Ravi did not improve. Ravi's parents began to see him as a burden. He had to have two people to look after his needs, including one person who was responsible for carrying him wherever he needed to go. None of the Hindu gods heard the prayers of Ravi and his parents. His condition worsened, and he became completely disabled. After all of the work, sacrifices, and money spent on their son, his parents concluded that Ravi would not walk the rest of his life because he had bad karma in a previous life.
Karma is a Hindu fatalistic concept that necessitates reincarnation. The conditions of each successive life are determined by one's bad or good deeds in past lives. It is a kind of a universal law of cause and effect that determines fate or destiny. Each person must suffer for his own deeds of the past life.
Ravi suffered as a young boy and was crippled because of the bad deeds he had committed in a previous life. Ravi spoke of the difficulties of his childhood: "I saw how much my parents enjoyed my brothers and sisters, but they did not want to be around me. They would tell our housekeeper to carry me away from the rest of the family on special events. I was driven almost to the point of a nervous breakdown."
Balance is defined as "mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment."
Today's Scripture
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 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" (James 1:1-4).
There are two truths you need to know to better equip you to handle difficulties.
1. Trouble is Unavoidable
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds…" (James 1:2).
A gentleman was on his way home in a subway. He was prone to motion sickness, to begin with. He had a big lunch and worked that afternoon with a bit of an upset stomach. He was jammed onto the subway as the last person able to get on. The door automatically opened and closed with the motion of the starting and stopping of the subway. So there he was, standing at the glass doorway, watching outward as things were flashing by at 90 mph. The longer he stood, the sicker he got until it came up to the stop where it wasn't his place to get off, but another fellow was waiting on the platform in order to get on the subway. The door opened, and out came this man's lunch all over the man. He "threw up" all over a random stranger. The door closed, and the thing went right on. The fellow standing on the platform was suddenly standing with another man's lunch all over his body. He turned around to the man behind and asked, "Why me?"
Trials are inevitable. If the door doesn't open on you this time, it will the next time. The word "various" in verse two can also be translated as "multicolored." Some trials are family-related, while others are job-related. So be ready.
"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you" (1 Peter 4:12).
Indeed the better Christian, the more severe the trials he may have to encounter. For example, the Bible says that Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil. Yet in one day, Job went bankrupt from family to finances. He lost his sheep, his servants, his oxen, his donkeys, his sons, and his daughters all in one day. I think about Daniel, who prayed three times a day to the Lord. Probably three times as much as the average Christian prays, and all he got for his praying was a free trip to the lion's den. I think about Joseph, a man of unquestioned integrity and decency, loyalty, and purity who was thrown into prison for something he didn't even do. And then I thought about the Apostle Paul, the greatest Christian in the New Testament next to the Lord Jesus Himself. Listen to how Paul described some of the things he went through as a lover of Jesus:
"Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one- I am talking like a madman- with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure" (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).
You think you have problems?
2. Troubles have a Purpose
"for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (James 1:3).
We go through tests. The word trial means a test to discover the nature or quality of a person. We do not know if our faith is genuine until it stands up under the test. You can buy a jacket that claims to be waterproof. If you wear it on dry days, you have not put the jacket to the test. The test of that jacket is if you get caught in a downpour, does it keep you dry? If it does, you say, "That's a good jacket!"
It's easy to proclaim, "I trust in God!" Anybody can say that. But, the test of your faith is when you really do choose to trust God in a severe trial. Afterward, you know that your faith is genuine because it brought you through the trial. Everyone faces trouble, but will the trouble make or break the person.
"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, seven so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Trials teach us steadfastness. Or spiritual toughness, to hang in there when there are no answers.
John Piper in Future Grace relates the amazing story of Marie Durant (from Karl Olsson in Passion). In the late 17th century, in southern France, Marie was brought before the authorities and charged with the Huguenot heresy (being a Reformed Protestant). "She was fourteen years old, bright, attractive marriageable." She was asked to recant her Huguenot faith. "She was not asked to commit an immoral act, to become a criminal, or even to change the day-to-day quality of her behavior." She was only asked to say, "I recant." She refused. Together with thirty other Huguenot women, she was put into a tower by the sea and left there for 38 years. She and her fellow martyrs scratched on the wall of their prison tower the single word, "Resist!" Tourists still see and gape at that word on that stone. Olsson reflects: "We can understand a religion which enhances time… But we cannot understand a faith that is not nourished by the temporal hope that tomorrow things will be better. To sit in a prison room with thirty others and to see the day change into night and summer into autumn, to feel the slow systemic changes within one's flesh: the drying and wrinkling of the skin, the loss of muscle tone, the stiffening of the joints, the slow stupefaction of the senses—to feel all this and still to persevere seems almost idiotic to a generation which no capacity to wait and to endure."
The word for testing in verse three comes from the word that is means "approved." Archeologists have unearthed ancient pottery that was marked "approved" on the bottom. It was the stem of the same word used in verse three. It was used to communicate that pottery had been put through the fire. Items that did not have this marking were placed on the budget shelf and were sold as defective. The items that had this marking of approval had gone through the fire without cracking.
God gives us trouble in order to develop patience in us. The purpose of the troubles is not only to develop our patience and steadfastness but also to meet these troubles with joy. People who have deep Christian character are people who know how to live life in the furnace. It is the mother who is able to say to God, "You gave, and You take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." It's the father who did everything possible to keep his job but has lost it. He gathers his family and thanks God for the opportunity to trust Him. It's the teenager who says I will not give up my standards though no one seems to like me. Here are three attitudes to adopt to get you through the tough times. Each of these attitudes comes from the verses in front of me.
1. Count
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds…" (James 1:2).
When troubles come, we are to consider these trials with a certain mindset. The mindset is joy. We are to have a positive attitude when enduring difficulties. We are to say, "God has this trouble in my life for a reason." This radical attitude does not require denying emotional pain. Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died. This is not about putting on a happy face and denying that you are hurting.
This attitude is a radical and a prior decision to the trouble. Turning trials into triumphs is done best before the trouble comes and not in the midst of the trial. Everyone needs an international dateline which one crosses in reference to life's tests.
"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" (Hebrews 12:2).
2. Comprehend
"for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (James 1:3).
I need to comprehend the purpose of the trial. This is not for my bad but for my good. The purpose of the trouble is to see me swim and not drown.
3. Cooperate
"And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:4).
You must not fight but let difficulty it have its course with us. The verse implies that God is using the trials for His purpose. He is not sitting in heaven saying, "I didn't want that to happen, but now that it has happened, let's see how we can make the best of a bad situation!" Scripture is clear that God is sovereign over everything, from the rain and snow that fall (Job 37:6-13), to seemingly random events (the lot, Proverbs 16:33), to the events of nations (Psalms 22:28; Acts 14:16; 17:26). On the personal level, He ordained all of the days of our lives before we were ever born (Ps. 139:16). He fashions our hearts (Ps. 33:14-15) and orders our steps (Ps. 37:23; Proverbs 16:9; 20:24). The Bible affirms that God is sovereign over birth defects (Exodus 4:11), natural disasters (Genesis 6:17; Jonah 1:4), and even over the evil things that people do, although He is not responsible for their sin (Genesis 50:20; Exodus 4:21; 1 Kings 22:23; Isaiah 10:5; Acts 4:27-28). It robs people of comfort and creates a very scary world, where evil is out of control, to deny God's sovereignty over trials because it denies that He is purposefully working those trials for our ultimate good.
"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, seven casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:6-7).
We are to yield, cooperate with God. When we yield to God, God's mighty hand will have its full effect upon us. What is this effect? Maturity or perfect. The word can also be translated as "complete." There is no part missing.
