Count It All Joy
Three things: glorification, steadfastness, trials.
Glorification is God’s end goal for us. It is our perfect conformity to the image of Jesus.
Steadfastness (or endurance) now is the condition that leads to that glorification.
Trials are part of the recipe that produces steadfastness.
Trials “of various kinds” are what God uses in this life to refine our faith and make us what we were meant to be. So how then should we think of trials?
In light of the providential control of our good Father, how should we consider trials?
James 1:2–4,
“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.”
My exhortation is to do that. Let’s pray.
Prayer of Confession
Father in heaven, we hear your word in James Chapter 1 to consider our trials as pure joy, but we confess that it is so difficult to get there. We struggle, Father, to be doers of your word and not hearers only. We’re often too blinded by our present circumstances and too dizzied by our transient desires to remember that you are at work, and that your work is good. Father, forgive us for being short-sighted and impatient. Forgive us for thinking so much like the world who is against us. Make us to see rightly. To be transformed by your truth. To do as your Word says.
Have mercy on us, O God, and lead us now, as we confess these and other sins to you.
Father in heaven, Giver of all good gifts, you who do not change, thank you for the gospel of your Son. Thank you that Jesus came here to save us, to make us your sons and daughters, and to watch over us in this life in such a way that not a hair can fall from our heads apart from your gracious will. This is amazing grace, Father, and we praise you. With all that we are, this morning, we thank you, in Jesus’s name, amen.
