Trials and Suffering
Dr. James Smith
James 1:1-18
12 March 2006
Listen to this sermon.
“Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance . . . that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing.”
What a strange and twisted concept in the world’s eyes! After all, who in their “right minds” would welcome or be joyful about the inevitable trials of life?
This has to be one of the most difficult verses of the Bible, because its practical implications for our lives are absolutely staggering and because most of us spend our lives seeking to avoid hardship.
Those who seem to like such things are traditionally called, “gluttons for punishment.” Sick and twisted people who apparently have an insatiable appetite for difficult situations for some pathological reason, while the rest of us are trying to “dodge the (proverbial) bullet.
But here at the beginning of his short book, James (who has no time for small talk or chit-chat) goes right for the jugular and boldly states one of the most important spiritual principles of the Christian life.
“Whenever you face trials, consider them pure joy” though it is important to note that he doesn’t say, “pure happiness,” but consider them pure joy.
And in the Christian life, coming to a growing and experiential knowledge of this truth is what separates the men from the boys, the women from girls and those for whom religion is a comforting thing from those for whom it is their life.
But James does not write for the world at all, he writes for believers who have committed their lives to Jesus Christ.
And one of the biggest lies told today by the church to Christians or by evangelists sharing the gospel with non-believers, is that once you sincerely place your faith in Jesus Christ, the rest of your life will be “smooth sailing.”
This is a lie, and in some cases, a lie from the pit of hell, as C. S. Lewis reminds us in his famous book, “The Screwtape Letters.”
Or to borrow the words of a country singer of yesteryear, God shouts to us, “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.”
But rather, He reminds us through James, to consider, to believe, to think it a precious kind of pure joy whenever we face difficulties and trials of all sorts.
When through no fault of your own and beyond all your control, things happen and knock the wind out of you.
James is not talking about the old vaudeville act where someone beats themselves over the head with a baseball bat and when asked why they are doing it, they reply, “Well . . . because it feels so good when I stop.”
James is talking about something much deeper than meets the eye. In James’ mind, these trials and troubles can in some strange way contain the seeds of God’s blessings. And that faith must be tested if it is to come to any kind of maturity.
Have you ever been to a jewelry store and seen pictures on the walls of the mining operations that extracted those precious metals and jewels from the earth?
Mining is hot, dirty and in many cases, very dangerous work. Almost no one thinks about such things when looking at the jewelry.
Take gold for example, when this precious metal is taken from the earth it is accompanied by many impurities. The miner carefully cleans the ore and then the gold is melted down in very, very hot fires.
As the gold becomes liquid, the impurities or dross begins to float to the top and is skimmed off and thrown away. This process is repeated many, many times until the gold is purified.
Why are so many of today’s churches filled with shallow and superficial people? The answer is simple. Because their faith has not been tested. Many impurities remain.
I dare anyone here this morning, to find a truly mature believer at any moment in the last 2000 years who did not go through significant “trials and tribulations.”
Again, James tells us that the one endures trials that test their faith is one who is blessed. But he also gives us a warning.
He says, that when these inevitable trials of life come, and if they become temptation, we must not say, the Lord is tempting me.
God is called, “the father of lights;” the one who is not shifty like the shadows. He gives His children good gifts that are perfect.
So where do our temptations come from? It comes from our own strong desires and lusts, that allure, entice and drag us away.
James uses the graphic imagery of illicit sexual desire. We allow our hearts to be captured with something that is not perfect, not mature and not good. We look for gifts and pleasures from a source other than the “father of lights.”
When we act on our desires, they conceive and then in due time death is birthed in our lives eliminating all of God’s pure joy.
In short, as Albus Dumbledore has said, “these are the times in life, when we must choose between what is right and what is easy.”
I remember back to Deb and my first year of marriage. It was nearly twelve months of constant trials and tribulations. Very briefly, it began after our honeymoon. My back got thrown out, Deb got pneumonia and very homesick for Michigan.
I began my second year of seminary and Deb could not find work. My grandmother died and I got hepatitis, mono, tonsillitis and was literally, deathly ill. Debbie found a job, only to be let go a week later because she was not supposed to be hired.
Deb got pneumonia again and we had no insurance as well as no money for rent. I caught acute viral pharangitis that lasted 5 months as well as re-occurring liver complications. All of this obviously became very difficult on our marriage and we struggled.
One week all my pets (two gerbils, a ferret, a hamster and a guinea pig) as well as all my fish died. Debbie got bronchitis and I had several flus.
There were other things, but I had to trust my life and marriage to the Lord wondering why all this was happening to me. The temptation to give up and go back to Michigan was there for my wife and sinking into despair and depression for myself.
All of this was just prior to being called to pastor a tough little church filled with recovering drug addicts in the Bronx. I knew only later that God was using all of these things to purify and prepare us to minister in a very difficult urban environment.
God’s word says, “consider pure joy when you face all kinds of trials” for they are the means which God uses to lead us to spiritual maturity.
And don’t worry, you don’t have to go out looking for trouble, it will find you. This world will see to it that you go through trials and temptations.
But Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, be encouraged, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33).
Poem:
After all . . . “If all were easy, if all were bright. Where would the cross be, where would the fight? But in the hard place, God gives you chances for proving what He can do . . . so let pass this on to you.”
“Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length, pressed so intensely it seems beyond strength. Pressed in the body and pressed in the soul. Pressed in the mind ‘till the dark surges roll.”
“Pressure by foes, pressure by friends, pressure on pressure ‘till life nearly ends . . . blessed pressure . . . pressed into knowing, no helper but God, pressed into loving the staff and the rod, pressed into liberty where nothing else clings,
pressed into faith for impossible things, pressed into living a life in the Lord, pressed into living a Christ life outpoured.”
This is what trials can do for the Christian, so “Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance . . . that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing.”
Let’s Pray
