Rejoicing in Trials

REFLECTION

VESPER SERVICE - LUMC

OCTOBER 22, 2006- LAITY MONTH

By: Arnel S. Oroceo

TITLE: REJOICING IN TRIALS

TEXT: JAMES 1:2-8

OBJECTIVE:

To share some insight and life application teaching

on the subject of temptation in the context of trials

based on James 1:2-8. This is trial in the context of

Christian suffering not because of sin or disobedience.

Illustrations taken from Job 38; Mark 10:38-39 and

Hebrews 5:7-10

INTRODUCTION

A scientific experiment was done in a university in the United States. It was about life in a perfect environment. All possible causes for disease have been eliminated. Eight mice were placed in a clinically simulated perfect environment. Everything that they would need like food, water and shelter was well provided for. The results after two years were as follows:

· Mice colony rose from 8 to 2000 mice

· Groupings or “clicks” had been observed; 12 in each group

· Females had become dominant over the males. The females drove out the males from their territories; the males relinquished their territories to the females

· The young mice had become self-indulgent. They were busy cleaning themselves and just did what they wanted to do

Two things that the mice no longer do:

· They do not help each other anymore

· They do not make love anymore

Five years later, in such a perfect environment, every mouse died!

This is not conclusive but it seems that the absence of adversity is not conducive for life.

EXPOSITION

Text taken from KJV2000 version:

James 1:2 says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations…

The word joy here is from the Greek word chara {khar-ah'} which means gladness, the cause or occasion of joy. [Experiences of sorrow prepare for, and enlarge, the capacity for "joy," e.g., John 16:20; Rom 5:3-4; 2Cr 7:4; 8:2; Hebrew 10:34; Jam 1:2]. In other Bible translations, temptation here is translated as trial or trouble. It is from the Greek word peirasmos {pi-ras-mos'} which means an experiment, attempt, trial, proving; the trial of man's fidelity, integrity, virtue, constancy. Following the theology of James, trials in our lives are occasions for joy. It seems like a course that you need to finish in order to earn a degree. It is like a test that you need to pass to receive high recognition, even reward afterwards. However, the thing is you will never know what it is, how it will come or when it will come. Sorry, but you cannot get a leakage from heaven. When a Christian experiences such in his life, according to James, he should ...count it all joy.

In his commentary on the book of James, Matthew Henry expounds on joy in suffering. He says, “We must not sink into a sad and disconsolate frame of mind, which would make us faint under our trials; but must endeavor to keep our spirits dilated and enlarged, the better to take in a true sense of our case, and with greater advantage to set ourselves to make the best of it. Philosophy may instruct men to be calm under their troubles; but Christianity teaches them to be joyful, because such exercises proceed from love and not fury in God...”

I’d like to share four points to show why we can rejoice in trials:

1. James 1:3-4 says ...Knowing this, that the trial of faith works patience…

Another thing about the testing of our faith is that we do not know how long it takes, when it ends or when another comes. The word patience here is from the Greek word hupomone {hoop-om-on-ay'} which means steadfastness, constancy, endurance. Vine’s Bible dictionary defines it as, In the New Testament, the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

The best person in the Bible to illustrate the “moment of affliction” in life would be Job. It would be easy to tell Job, “Brother, be happy in your affliction because God loves you.” However, if we will try to put ourselves in Job’s shoes, probably we could cry, “why me Lord? There are so many evil people in the world who deserve to be punished, why me”? The tough question is why a good God does allow pain to enter a believer’s life.

Job had a sound knowledge of God and he resolutely cleaved to them in his moment of affliction. However, he was slowly sinking into despair. He complained about God’s justice. He knew he was innocent but he felt that God was treating him rather unfairly.

God did not condemn Job’s complain and despair. In our lectionary reading of Job 38, the Lord talked to Job and asked him a series of rhetorical questions designed to persuade and impress upon him and make him understand the reality of the greatness of His Sovereign power. In effect, God asked, “Were you there when I laid the foundation of the world and defined the measure between the stars and the planets in the universe”? Job dared not answer. He admitted how puny man is before God. In a sense, we are in a better position than Job because at least, we have an idea about what is possibly happening in the spiritual realm that we cannot see. We know what happened to Job. He did not. God never told him. It shows that we do not have the right to question His judgments because God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and we cannot reach the glory of His wisdom. We cannot expect Him to explain everything and we do not need to know everything but surely His grace abounds to all those who will learn to trust Him along the path of affliction and a great reward is waiting at the end of the journey. Job learned from his experience. It is only when we begin to appreciate God’s sovereign control over all things, do we truly begin to completely praise, trust and obey Him.

As James 1:4 says ...But let patience have its perfect work... Henry continues, “When we bear all that God appoints, and as long as he appoints, and with a humble obedient eye to him, and when we not only bear troubles, but rejoice in them, then patience hath its perfect work”. Patience allows a person to learn from his experiences and does not think of doing evil to save himself.

2. James 1:5 says ...if anyone lacks wisdom; let him ask of God...

Trials develop wisdom. Solomon has been wise to ask for wisdom so he could rule the people of God. With this, God has been pleased with him and he has become the wisest man who has ever lived! Most often that not, we suffer because of lack of wisdom. Wisdom is obtained from knowledge and the problem in prophet Hosea’s day is sometimes still true today; My people perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Everything we need to know is in God’s Word. Search it. Study it so that we may be thoroughly equipped. Wisdom would then teach us how put those truths into practice. When we lack wisdom, what happens is we pray the wrong prayer and therefore, we miss the entire purpose of the test. Matthew Henry again comments, “We should not pray so much for the removal of an affliction as for wisdom to make a right use of it. Who is there that does not want wisdom under any great trials or exercises to guide him in his judging of things, in the government of his own spirit and temper, and in the management of his affairs”?

Sometimes we wrestle in prayer according to how we view things. We ask the Lord to bless us the way we want to be blessed. We ask for the solutions to our problems in the way we think they ought to be solved. Look at Mark 10:37-40, about John and James’ request, in Apostle Matthew’s account, it was actually their mother who prayed to the Lord about her two sons’ future in heaven. Well, mothers are always like that anyway. They only want the best for their children. However, God’s sovereign will and purpose must be accomplished in everything and not merely our personal satisfaction. Indeed, James and John suffered the suffering of Jesus. James was killed by the sword and John was exiled to Patmos. However, it was all for the glory of God and not of themselves.

3. James 1:6-8 says ...let him ask in faith and nothing wavering... let not that man think that he shall receive... a double-minded man is unstable in his ways…

Trials develop faith. It gives us confidence in prayer and adds power to it.

Someone said, “Asking reveals closeness”. I agree that the manner of asking reveals close relationship. There was a young man who was in short of 25 centavos for his jeepney fare. (Jeepney fare for the first 4 kilometers then was only P4.50). He was thinking if he would just go down to save himself from sure embarrassment or just bargain with the driver. Then he saw an old woman in front of him opened her purse to pay for her fare. He noticed a number of 25-centavo coins inside the purse and so he thought of asking for help from the woman. He struggled before he could finally do so because he felt so embarrassed to ask for 25 centavos from a total stranger. He said if only he knew the old woman, it could have been a lot easier to ask. He could have asked even more than 25 centavos. Anyways, the old woman gave him the 25 centavos he needed.

On the other end, it is easy to help people whom we love. Just take our texting culture for example. We never enjoy text exchanges from people who for any reason we do not seem to like. They may not look bad but we just do not think they are cute so even if we reply, just to be polite, it is like a sting to spend a peso! However, we do not mind using up all our load credits just to keep the text exchanges with those we consider special or good friends.

It is difficult to ask for favors from total strangers. It is easy to ask for help from people we know or those we consider as friends. We feel comfortable with them and even confident that they will extend help. The good news is in John 15:13, Jesus calls us His friends! We are his special friends. We can come to Him without any reservation, hesitation or even fear. He loves His friends so much that has laid down his own life for them, what more could he not give?

God’s love is dependable and we can come to God with the confidence that He listens to our prayers and petitions because we know that He loves us without favoritism. If sometimes, we are lifted up by faith and then thrown down again by distrust. We soar to spiritual height and then to sink again in seeking the ease of the body, or the enjoyments of this world—this is a fitting comparison to a wave of the sea, that rises and falls, swells and sinks, just as the wind tosses it higher or lower, that way or this. Matthew Henry says, “A mind that is set into one direction and keeps steady in its purposes for God, will grow wise by afflictions, will continue fervent in its devotions, and will be superior to all trials and oppositions”.

You may not want the situation where you are now but God can change your life. If you think your life is garbage, God can change that into a beautiful one! You only need to persevere in faith.

No amount of bank account can secure your future and neither will your good paying job will. Nothing in this world can give absolute security because no one knows what will happen tomorrow. I am not saying that it is wrong to save for the rainy day; in fact, it is part of our responsibility as stewards of God to put into good use what He is giving us. What I am saying is that do not look for peace from the material things you keep because they are fleeting. Neither should you seek emotional security from people even from friends. Job had friends to console him but instead of helping him get out of his misery, they added more pain to the weight he was already carrying. In fact, if we will read their speeches, we can learn everything we should never say to a friend in affliction. [A lawyer asking his client to admit to a crime he is innocent of just to ensure a light sentence for his client. It is a gross disservice!] As Christian friends, let us be careful with the words that come out of our lips for they will give either life or death.

God who has the power over nature, over time and even what is beyond time can safely secure your whole being. Blessed are they whose hope is in the LORD, whether in abundance or in scarcity, in health or in affliction their trust is in Him alone.

In Hebrews 5:7-10, Paul wrote about how the Lord rose over His own suffering particularly referring to those two days when His sufferings were at the height. [which we know as Maundy Thursday and Good Friday] There was before him that horrible image of a painful, shameful, accursed death and the weight of the sin that He had to bear for you and me. It grieved him so much and moved him to pray conditionally against it but He had thirst to be obedient to the righteous will of his Father; to "lay down" even "his life for the sheep." Though he is the Son of God... Yet he suffered in His obedience… but afterwards, the Father glorified Him... He became the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him.

CONCLUSION

Beloved brothers and sisters, even the Lord went through suffering in both his humanity and deity in order to fulfill His Father’s purpose for Him and that is to save us and give us eternal life with Him. In remembrance of His victory, we too, can face our sufferings with joy, faith and patient endurance as we humbly pray because these are occasions for God to carry us through. May we all find comfort in the words written in Romans 8:31b-32, “If God is for us who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?”

There is one thing we can see here. When Satan challenged God about Job [that Job was only worshiping God because He was prospering him, and once he experience suffering, he will curse God to His face], God was sure that Job will not disappoint Him. In Romans 9:33, “...whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed”. The Lord believes also in you, in us that we will not put Him to shame.

The Lord bless us all in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen! To God be the glory forever, Amen!

To the readers of Reflections: Permission is given to print and reproduce part (where the meaning intended is retained and the part is not quoted out of context) or all the content of the reflections for personal use or for distribution on the condition that there is proper acknowledgement, no changes are made and the content is distributed free of charge. Please be prayerful and discreet in distributing or making the content available to others. This paragraph should be included in any and all content reproduced for distribution.

-Arnel Oroceo

The Orocean Journal

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