Count It All Joy

God is preparing us. He’s preparing us for eternity, and he’s also preparing us to fulfill our purpose on the earth.

God prepares us when we go through challenges. Challenges without God can destroy us, but challenges we face with God’s help can make us stronger. A righteous man falls seven times but keeps getting up again (Proverbs 24:16). God gives us hope. He gets us through challenges by his Spirit. And he promises that all things work together for good, even the hard things of life (Romans 8:28).

Our faith in God and his word is going to be tested. This is normal.

Faith is our grip on God and on eternal spiritual realities. When we face challenges Satan wants us to lose our grip on God and let go. Some people let go of God during times of testing (Luke 8:13). But others hold more tightly to God and grow stronger in their faith. God wants us to hold on.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (James 1:2).

Trials take many forms, and there are times when we will fall into troubles. We’re walking along and suddenly a challenge comes. These various trials are all opportunities to grow in our faith. When seen this way, we can face trials with joy.

The trials that we encounter as Christians have several purposes.

1. Trials reveal what is inside us (Psalm 139:23-24). A trial can reveal fear, unbelief, strife, envy, anxiety, and doubt. When we face a problem, surprising things can come out of us. It’s good to know what’s inside our hearts, and trials have a way of bringing hidden things out. When a tree is jostled, fruit should come out. When we are jostled, the fruit of the Spirit should come out. When evil things come out from us instead, it’s a sign we need to grow.

2. Trials can sanctify us. They show us evil within us that we need to be cleansed from. They can bring us to repentance, turn us away from the world and toward God, and cause us to rethink our priorities. 

3. Trials can produce patience. As we hold onto God through the trial, our faith grows stronger. Stronger faith produces patience, because we are confident that God will fulfill his word and we are willing to wait for him to come through. 

4. Trials encourage us to rely more on God. Some trials almost force us to lean on God because they are so hard we cannot get through them apart from God. 

5. Trials give us a testimony. After going through a trial, we can say that God brought us through. Our testimony will help us in the future when we face the devil. God helped us win once, and he will do it again. Our testimonies also encourage others. By seeing how God helped us, others can be encouraged that God will help them in a similar way.

6. We enter the kingdom of God as we go through trials (Acts 14:22). The kingdom of God is the greatest thing we can pursue, and it is very satisfying to see the kingdom of God advance. But it’s not easy to see the kingdom of God advance because Satan is the god of this age. In order to see the kingdom of God move forward, we must face challenges. As we overcome these challenges by the Holy Spirit, God’s kingdom comes.

God has a solution to every problem we might face. When we face a problem and don’t know what to do, God will give us wisdom to solve the problem if we ask him. With this divine wisdom we can face the challenge successfully (James 1:5). God has an answer for everything. 

Moreover, God will make a way of escape with every challenge and trial we face (1 Corinthians 10:13). He won’t allow us to be overwhelmed with something that will crush us. God is always faithful, he fulfills his word, and we can keep trusting in him, no matter what we are facing. He will get us through, somehow.