Three Strategies for Faithfully Enduring Trials

^“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4)

Count it all joy

James begins his epistle with a jarring exhortation about enduring trials. He says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” “Count it all joy” is the command. The rest of the passage gives the why and the how to obey it.

To “count” something means to regard it a certain way, to adopt a mindset. Paul uses the same language in Philippians 3:7-8, saying he counted his gains as losses compared to knowing Christ. Knowing Jesus flips your perspective, even on suffering. You can’t control the trial, but you can control how you think about it. That’s the game-changer.

Trials hurt. Our first instinct is to make the pain stop. But James says, when trials hit, think differently. Count them joy. He’s talking about a shift in mindset that receives the pain of trial as an opportunity to grow and become more steadfast.

Notice James says “when” you meet trials, not “if.” Trials are coming, and they’re not all the same. Some are physical, like a bad knee or a cancer diagnosis. Other pain is mental or emotional, like despair gnawing at your soul. Whatever the flavor, James says, “count it all joy.” He means simply this: when pain comes, settle this in your mind: “This hurts, but I’m choosing to see it as joy.”

Joy and pain are opposites, so this is counterintuitive. God wants to give you a benefit in your pain, and it starts with your attitude. Scripture often compares trials to childbirth. It’s painful in the moment, but the result is a baby.

Despair = suffering - meaning

So think of your trial as being pregnant with a spiritual blessing of growth that God will produce in you. In other words, your suffering is never meaningless. Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist who survived a Nazi concentration camp, wrote a simple equation in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. He said “despair equals suffering minus meaning.” If you think your pain is pointless, you’ll spiral deeper towards despair. But if you know God is doing producing something good and glorious in your suffering, you can endure anything.

And God always seeks our good in all things, even our suffering. First Peter 4:12-13 says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial… but rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings.” Your pain’s headed somewhere. Count it joy.

“The testing of your faith produces steadfastness”

Next, James gives the reason why we can count our trials as joy. Verse 3 says, “for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” That’s the rationale. Counting pain as joy sounds crazy unless you see the purpose. Trials aren’t just bad things happening. Under God’s sovereign control, trials are tests that move you in a direction. God is using your trial to make you stronger, more steadfast, giving you a rock-solid stability. He’s using it to make you more like Jesus.

C.S. Lewis said: “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Pain exposes what’s in your heart and gives God a chance to grow you.

Verse 4 adds, “Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Steadfastness is taking you somewhere. James describes steadfastness positively and negatively. Positively, God wants to make you “perfect and complete.” Negatively, God wants you to “lack nothing.” In other words, a steadfast man is whole.

Don’t freak out about “perfect.” The Greek word for perfect here, “teleios,” doesn’t mean sinlessness, but having achieved a goal. From God’s perspective, the goal of your trial is to bring his work of sanctification in your life to completion.

Three Strategies for Enduring Trials

So when you encounter trials, here are three things you can put into practice to endure them faithfully.

#1: Name your trial

When something painful happens, give it the appropriate label so you can apply scripture’s teaching to it. When we’re hurting, the most natural thing to do is focus on doing whatever we can to make the pain stop. James tells us to do something unnatural: label it a trial so we can remember God’s purpose in it, enabling us to count it joy. In other words, take your painful experience and give it a biblical label: “trial.” Then you can open your Bible and look up what scripture says to do with trials.

I met a new couple at church recently who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 20 years ago. This is the sort of trial that would be devastating for most people to go through. But in Rick Iles’ case, he counted it all joy and God produced greater steadfastness in him as a result. I learned his story by reading the book he wrote about it, My Gift from God: Parkinson’s Disease. In this book, he described his decision that Parkinson’s would not define him or defeat him. The disease has physically weakened him, but spiritually has given him the strength of a lion.

He learned to receive his trial as a gift. Naming it a trial gave him a framework to process it biblically. Do the same with your pain. Label it, and you’ll know what to do.

#2: Endure your trial

James uses two words in 1:2-4: “trials” and “testing.” They describe the same event from different angles. From our perspective, the painful experience is a “trial.” Something is wrong and it hurts. From God’s perspective, that same experience is called a “test,” because God is using it to accomplish a purpose.

In school, teachers use a test to accomplish two things. First, tests reveal what the student knows or doesn’t know. Second, by requiring students to take them, tests teach students the material. Students study the material because they know a test is coming.

God uses trials to test us in the same way. When God sends or allows trials to afflict us, he’s using them to expose things about us we might not otherwise have seen. And by learning to endure that trial faithfully, God teaches us greater dependence on him.

As mentioned above, the goal of the test is steadfastness. God wants to produce a rock-solid faith in you, not wishy-washy, or a “double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).

#3: Anticipate the full effect

Verse 4 says, “Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” The Christian life is holistic, not bits and pieces. God’s aiming for a fully sanctified you—perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

Trials are directional. God uses them to test you and lead you down the path of steadfast faith. We’re approaching that now, and one day we’ll arrive there in eternity. In other words, God’s not out to get you. He’s a good Father who wants to teach you.

My prayer life is strongest when my trials are fiercest. I’ve read many books on prayer, but nothing teaches me to depend on God in prayer better than going through the furnace.

Conclusion

We can see these principles play out in the cross of Christ. Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy set before him, [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame.” As a trial, the cross of Christ was the worst trial any man has ever endured. As a test, it revealed the perfection of Jesus Christ who was faithful to the end. Although Jesus had no need to “learn” anything the way we do, Hebrews 5:8 says Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered.” The “joy” set before Jesus was to transform sinners into His likeness for eternity for the glory of God.

Your trials will have a beautiful result, too. A difficult marriage, a betrayal, financial stress, a prodigal child, these trials are tests that God will use to producing rock-solid steadfastness in your life, making you perfect, complete, and lacking nothing, just like your Lord Jesus Christ.

Note: this essay is an adaptation of a sermon I recently preached from the book of James. As time permits, I’ll post more essays from this sermon series in a similar way.