A devotion from James 1:2-4 which reads, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of you faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." 1:2, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,” Here we often, if not altogether, sin by omitting the weight of this opening statement: “count it all joy,” in order to transition immediately to the favored outcome presented in verse 4. However, we have an immediate and imperative command to be obeyed if we have any hope that the rest of the passage might unfold as we would like it to. I understand that the command to, “count it all joy,” while we are in the midst of one of our “various trials,” comes as such an outrage to our flesh that the following verse must be sought to fulfill the need of self-deliverance naturally rooted in the motives and desire of every heart. But in order to achieve this fulfillment, we must come back to the catalyst presented in verse 2: Joy.
To count your current struggles, trials, and testing as joy, is not only seemingly insane (without the promise of God behind it), but it is also something that must be obtained through purposeful care and conscious experimentation of prayer, biblical meditation, worship, and finally, focused implementation. To hope in the fulfillment of being “complete, lacking nothing,” without the execution of counting our trials as joy, is as sane as hoping to win the lottery prize without ever scratching a ticket. What God is giving us is a process. We must, in the midst of trials, take a mental pause, and step back to reassess the situation according to promise of God’s word. We do so in 5 steps:
1:3, “…knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” We are able to literally and intentionally count our circumstances as joy, only in knowing that it is really our faith that is tested, and that it is tested in order to produce patience. This means that we must primarily focus, not on the physical conditions, or on our personal ability, but on our own faithfulness in asking and trusting God to perform. Furthermore, as patience is the desired outcome, we achieve our goal and hold fast to our faith, by purposefully pushing the boundaries of our patience with God, and ourselves, until he has delivered us from our trial, therefore instilling this work of faith and patience as a new reaction to life events through repetition and training. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, but if we can become conscious of the Lords will in our life, we can continue to put our hope in Him, and allow the Spirit to lead us as we continually give our anxiety, doubts, and burdens to Lord. 1:4., “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” The wording here is both surprising and revealing. Surprising in that it is not faith that is committed to us as having a perfect work, but rather the fruits of our faith, namely being: Patience. It is when faith takes hold of our life that patience is produced. It is when faith is a foundation and reality for us on a day-to-day and situation-to-situation basis, not as an ideology or an internal principle, but rather as an imperative reaction that is as unceasing as breathing is to our being. As the Holy Spirit says, let faith produce patience and “let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” This perfect work transforms us so much so, that we are given an expectation of becoming perfect (Matthew 5:48) and being so complete, that there is nothing we lack. This, my friends, is why we can have joy! This is our desire and expectation; this is the active work of God in the life of those who actively practice His ways. Conclusion Do you lack peace? Do you lack wholeness or health; fellowship or relationship? Is there a void in your marriage? In your family? Do those things the word directs: call on God, have faith, and by faith, patiently endure your trial, because on the other side of that trial is the perfect work of patience. Whatever you lack now, spiritually, physically, or emotionally, will be fulfilled, and you will be complete, lacking nothing. But heed these words carefully, and be sure not to hope simply to achieve the end result with no work or obedience, but be sure that through trials, you obey these words, and allow the final promise to be produced according to Gods’ design. Go, and be blessed.
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Darrin MillerWorking for the Lord. Archives
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