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How James 1:2 Can Change Everything
Brian Mashburn
July 15, 2018
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The Joy of Suffering?
In our current series entitled "Game Changers," I have enjoyed excavating scriptures that, if we really would go and learn what they mean, believe them, and allow them to drench our minds and hearts to the point of becoming a part what constitutes our assumptions, they would change how we think and feel about everything. And for the better.
For this week, one of the most seemingly ridiculous, and therefore most disobeyed, passages in scripture happens to be one of biggest game changers we will ponder all summer.
It is found in James 1:2 - "Consider it pure joy, by brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds."
Is there, on the surface, a more ridiculous statement that could be made? Who in the world considers the many kinds of trials we face pure joy? What kind of freak of nature would you have to be to rejoice when you get the news of cancer? Or when you find out about the affair? Or when you fail an implication-filled test? Or when you get the call about the sudden death of a loved one?
There certainly are many kinds of trials, but what kind of person would, when they face them, consider it pure joy? For that matter, what kind of God would call for it?
Well, perhaps we should do with this passage what Jesus told us to do with another one when he said, "Go and learn what this means." (Matthew 9:13)
Would you pause and imagine for a minute how your whole life changes IF you could do what this passage requires? It would give you a capacity to make it through anything. That is what kind of freak you would be, I guess. A freak like Jesus, who for the joy set before him, faced the cross. (Hebrews 12:2)