Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. —James 1:2

Like the cold corridors of the emergency hallways I entered at the hospital, so were the weeks of trials and tribulations that followed. My ordeal had started with excruciating pain that began in my stomach then moved to my arms and back. Reluctantly, I visited the doctor’s office. Then I had to take intravenous medication at the hospital, but it did not ease the pain. The suffering consumed me for over three months, and my soul was deeply weary. I got on my knees and cried out to God, “This is too much pain!”  I told Him I felt like Job. “Only you, Lord, I can trust,” I shouted. “I am confident that You, Lord, will help me to overcome this adversity.” Like a thief who comes to steal, the pain robbed me physically, emotionally, and spiritually, leaving me depleted and wondering if I would survive. During the ordeal, my wife was far away from me so there were some who said I was “suffering from ‘wifeitis,’ hahaha.” But, believe me, it was no joke.  

Joy is rarely perceptible through times of fiery trials. However, trials are the seeds of a greater work. James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  And indeed, a great delight began to sprout and flourish as I peered under the surface of what God was doing. 

It is a work that God continues to do not only in me but in all of us believers as we endure diverse hardships.

Joy does not arise naturally in us as we suffer the effects of The Fall in this life. Our hearts often plea for God to remove our burden when it feels all-consuming and too weighty to bear. And yet, in those moments, joy is cultivated in our hearts and minds when we trust that the Lord is doing this refining work, making complete that which would otherwise be incomplete. 

Becoming a Christian does not automatically exclude believers from difficulties. But when we begin to look at situations the way God sees them—that they are full of His presence, and in His presence, there is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11)—then our anxieties lessen, our resilience increases, and fear gets replaced with gratitude and joy. The seemingly cold words of James, “Count it all joy,” are actually filled with warm gospel truth and hope as they point the troubled soul to Jesus, from Whom the true healing balm comes.

Perhaps you are going through a season of trials. I want to encourage you, as I have learned, that no matter the circumstance, count it all joy. There’s purpose in that painful situation. 

Trials are not evidence that the Lord has forgotten or forsaken us; rather, they are proof that the Lord is performing His redemptive work in us.

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