But, clearly this man feels that he has gone through a deep trial, to part with those cars. Such are some of the trials that we endure. On the other hand, there are plenty of people in this room who have been called to go through deep waters.
Some of you have reared a child to see the day that grown child lying before you gone home. You know what it is to have a friend betray you. And the list could go on and on. In fact, there is no such thing as a Christian immune from trials. It is a good thing, certainly, to put our trials in perspective, to realize that there are some who have been called to go through things far more difficult than we have been called to go through.
But, there is never a necessity to belittle our trial. In fact, it may not be beneficial at all to belittle our trials. God does not belittle those trials. He treasures up the tears of His people, He tells us in the book of Revelation. James is concerned that we learn three or four very important things about trials.
In verses 2 — 4, James will set forth his principles about dealing with trials. Then in verses 5 — 8, he will talk with us about wisdom in the midst of trials. First, look at verses 2 — 4. Here, James says something really astonishing. He says that trials are useful. In verses 2 — 4, James is speaking of the usefulness of trials. In other words, trials serve to grow us up in grace.
When he says that to you, that might sound astounding. It may sound unrealistic. Nobody around me. James is not presenting in these verses a secret that he alone knows.
He is calling us here to believe and act on something that we all ready know. But he explicitly makes his words generally applicable here, when he says, consider it all joy when you experience or undergo what?
Various trials. And notice what James says we should do. Go to verse 4 and work backwards, because in verse 4, he tells you the purpose of trials. In verse 4, notice what he says: he tells you what the revealed purposes of God are in trials. What are they? To make you perfect, so that you will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. God is conspiring in trials to make you perfect, so that when you stand before Him on the last day, you are as sinless as His Son, Jesus.
Then you work back to verse 3. Having told you the revealed purposes of God in verse 4, James tells you the revealed means of God accomplishing His purpose, the instrument that He uses to produce your perfection. What is it? Testing, the testing of your faith. It produces perseverance or endurance in that faith. So the goal is perfection. The instrument is testing. What is the proving ground, the setting, the terrain of that testing? He tells you in verse 2. The goal is perfection; the means is testing, proving faith to make it endure.
And what is the response that we are then to have to that testing? James has set before you a formula that he wants to be worked into our hearts so that it becomes second nature.
But James says this is how we are to respond to trials. Now, notice that what he says is exactly opposite of our instinctive response.
Our instinctive response to trial, first of all, is to question the secret purposes of God. Why is this happening to me? Why are You allowing this to happen? The element of trial patiently borne in the Christian experience clearly reveals the real Christian from the counterfeit!
Paul understands that he is traveling a pathway that is beset by trials and temptations, which is designed to prove his worthiness to bear the Christian name and his fitness for the heavenly home. This is why he keeps under his body and brings it into subjection to Christ. Their hewing, squaring, and chiseling, their burnishing and polishing, is a painful process; it is hard to be pressed down to the grinding wheel.
But the stone is brought forth prepared to fill its place in the heavenly temple. Upon no useless material does the Master bestow such careful, thorough work.
Only His precious stones are polished after the similitude of a palace. So then, understanding the significance of trials and temptations why then do we murmur and give way to the devil so easily?
And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to Him, He said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
Paul elsewhere in Scriptures talks of the importance of trial management in the life of the Christian, because this is one outstanding way, which recommends Christ to the unbeliever. So let me share with you a few reasons why God allows trials and tests to come to His followers.
First, character must be tested to help us see our true selves. It is because of this that the road to heaven is called the narrow way. Character must be tested, else there would be many spurious Christians, who would keep up a fair semblance of religion until their inclinations, their desire to have their own way, their pride and ambition, were crossed. Trials well borne will develop steadfastness of character and precious spiritual graces.
The perfect fruit of faith, meekness, and love often matures best amid storm clouds and darkness. You will become strong in Christ if you endure the testing process, and the proving of God. If you find yourself in some difficult or constraining circumstances that are a source of struggle for you, consider yourself in a trial; it is therefore not random it was allowed by God and can work for good in your spiritual growth. Most trials seem on the surface to present themselves to us as obstacles that prevent us from living a godly life.
Trials are not actually obstacles though they often feel that way , but are the fuel for getting to our goals. Often, as Christians, when we pray for greater holiness, we find the world caving in around us. Our reactions can make us feel more ungodly than ever.
It is critical to see that, while these trials might provide momentary set-backs to our visible progress in the faith, they are ultimately providing the fuel we need to get to our destination.
They build into our lives passion, perseverance, and deeper character change that go far beyond the surface behavior change we were trying to manifest in our lives. Often God answers our prayer for greater holiness, not by providing better circumstances that help us perform better, but by providing trials. The verse discloses that there is design and intent behind the trial.
God has looked at your life and decided that it was, in fact, necessary for you to go through a trial for the sake of spiritual growth. Often Christians fail to persevere in trials, because they begin to believe that they are simply random happenstance, and therefore have no point or benefit.
Unfortunately, without God, these can be nothing more than shallow platitudes, because there really is no guarantee that their pain will have a positive purpose. However, the Christian always has hope because there is nothing random, unplanned, or unforeseen in any of the trials that come into their lives.
For the Christian, absolutely nothing is random. All their pain and trials can have redemptive purposes, and anything that has come into their lives has been allowed by God.
One of the hardest things about trials is that we often think we are experiencing hardship because we have done something wrong, or that God is angry with us. The writer of Hebrews tells us to consider trials as loving discipline from God.
They are a sign, in most cases, that we have been doing well spiritually, and not the reverse. They often occur, not because we have done anything wrong, but because we are doing things right—or at least desire to. How often Christians lose heart in their trials, because they feel God is angry with them, when in fact, the opposite is true. They are not random. Knowing you are blessed can make you feel happy, but not always. Joy is a state of contentment, even freedom, within constraining circumstances.
Peter describes the gold smelting process where gold is heated up and impurities float to the surface. The next step in the process is to scoop away the dross, or impurities. The result is a purer piece of gold. The result, then, of trials the heating up of our lives is to accomplish a purer and stronger character and faith. As the heat brings impurities of character to the surface, it also raises issues of deficiency in our faith.
When we come through the trial, we find that our faith has been stretched to several times its original size, as we own the character of God in a way we never did before. Like the growth of a muscle lifting weights, the resistance of the trial causes the muscle of faith to grow stronger. It is in the heat of trials where these deficiencies in faith and character surface.
It is only when they surface, that God can begin to purify our hearts and motives and actions. Trials produce maturity, and this is why they are a blessing to us. James describes a progression where trials produce perseverance, and perseverance, maturity.
The goal of trials is not to make a person more persevering. But the result of persevering under trials is a mature character and faith.
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