James 1:2-4 says: 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Hardship is rarely the way we’d ever choose for things to go. If you’re anything like me, the last way we’d purposely opt for is the testing or the trial; I’d prefer smoothing-sailing all the way…however that’s not where growth happens. It’s a fact of life that hardship produces results that are often really good, if we allow the hardship to have its full effect. But, in all honestly, as much as we’d like everything in our lives to work out exactly as we’ve planned…I bet all of us can think of examples where we thought something was “bad” and it actually turned out to be a blessing. I think that’s what James is talking about in these verses, the trials of various kinds that test our faith, they cause us to learn steadfastness. We have the option to count it all joy because we can know that the testing of our faith makes us able to endure; and when that is allowed to have its full effect, we lack nothing. What an incredible thought…perfect, complete, lacking nothing…because we decided not to grumble or run away from hardship but to meet it head-on and count it all joy. Where is your faith being tested right now? Maybe an even better question is what or who are you placing your faith in? Yehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the only true God, and He is worthy of our trust; what He says He will do. He’s the same God who rescued Daniel from the lions, but Daniel still had to spend the night in the lion’s den. Maybe you’re hearing the roaring of lions seeking to devour you, but be faithful to God, He will be faithful to you.