The joy of facing difficulties in life
James 1:1-11
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4 and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8 for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
9 Let the believer who is lowly [rejoice] boast in being raised up, 10 and the rich [rejoice] in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
There is a great deal going on in this passage, some of which we will skip over. I want to pick up on the joy in vs. 2 and the rejoice in vs. 9 and 10.
When life is challenging, when the way is hard, James says, we should consider such situations nothing but joy. The difficult road produces endurance which grows into maturity. A friend says, “Stormy weather makes skillful sailors.” Hard times grow our resilience, not in ourselves, but in God, a resilience to make it through the challenges and the storms. As we make it through successive storms in life, our trust that God can and will see us through the storm rises. And that in turn gives us hope and joy when we face challenges, God is able to guide us through.
Further, the road of following Jesus’ example, is the road of following his example in facing difficulties and challenges. Following Jesus is challenging, and we like Jesus are invited to look to the joy that is set before us and therefore face the challenges with hope and resilience – with joy. (Hebrews 12:2)
Flipping to vs. 9 and 10 – the King James Version translates the passage that the poor are to rejoice in the hope they have that God will raise them up. They are to be excited in what God will do. The rich, the comfortable, are to rejoice in the fact that God will bring them low, because they will then learn the joy of walking the hard road of following Jesus even in difficult times. In the difficulties, in the struggles of life we discover that God is sufficient for this moment.
In our struggles, we learn the joy of following Jesus, of learning a resilience beyond ourselves that the Holy Spirit gives.
PRAYER:
O Lord, we do rejoice in the challenges and difficulties we face in life, for they have forced us to grow as people, we are better for those challenges. Teach us the joy of poverty. Teach us the joy of holding loosely to financial comfort. And above all teach us the joy of trusting in you alone. In Jesus’ name. Amen.