James 1:2 has it seriously wrong…
when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
Troubles are an opportunity for great joy!! I’ll give you troubles! My child has cancer, where is the joy in that?
- Watching her much loved hair fall out…. Joy! Err no.
- Catching vomit… No joy there
- Preparing her for yet another procedure… what can bribe, err reward her with? Joy? no.
- Dealing with the constipation/diarrhea pendulum… Umm maybe the joy of hidden in one of her nappies.
- Sleepless nights.. Joy joy joy
Let me read on (in James 1:3-4), maybe James was joking… They do that in the bible!…
For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Yay! Nothing like having my endurance tested. Being a father of three kids is great and it already feels like an endurance marathon (not that I’ve ever done one of those). But let my faith be tested so my endurance can grow! I guess I can look forward to being perfect and complete, needing nothing at the end of this.
OK, maybe James’ letter want meant for me… Let me look up other verses… My middle name is Peter, he must be a nice bloke, lets look what he’s got to say in 1 Peter 1:6-7
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
Nope, looks like Peter and James colluded to write the same thing. So, “trials will show my faith is genuine”, is there an easier way? At least if my faith remains strong through trials, it will bring me much praise and glory and honor. Maybe i should keep reading 1 Peter 4:12-13
Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
Umm, nope.. surely Peter had something else, here we go 1 Peter 5:10 …
In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.
OK, time to dig some more.. Paul wrote a fair bit of the NT, surely he’s written something to the Romans, here we go 5:3-4
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
RIGHT!!! I give up. You win Bible! I get it, I need to have problems and trials, I’ll be better for it. I know you’re right, I guess I was in denial.
As you may of guessed, I’ve gone on a bit of a journey with these verses over the last year. Initially they were hard to chew on, but now I truly love them. My favourite is James, which I put up in the bathroom cabinet a few months back so I see it every time I brush my teeth.
Life can be hard. I don’t know for sure if praise and glory and honor awaits, or if I’ll ever be perfect, complete and needing nothing. I do know when I let God carry my burden, things are easier. So this is where faith kicks in, although I don’t know this with happen, I feel, trust and hope it does.
There are MANY other verses I’ve had revelation with over the last year, if I get a chance I’ll share them too.