Joy in Trials?

I borrowed this from a blog friend of mine...(of course I asked permission first!)  I enjoyed it, and I hope you will too! 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

Why would we be joyful when facing trials and hardships?  That's a pretty foreign concept to us, isn't it?  Don't we face trials and hardships as a consequence to sin and as a result of living in a fallen world?  Well, yes, but that's not always the case. 

Maybe there's a bigger purpose.

Look back at the verse.  Trials = the testing of our faith

The testing of our faith develops perseverance.  Beth Moore states that the Greek word for perseverance means to "nerve oneself", or keeping your feet while being tossed around by strong winds, or "heroic endurance".  Perseverance = endurance

Endurance works in us to make us mature (or "perfect" in a different version) and complete. Perfect, not meaning sinless, but "that which has achieved or reached its goal, objective, purpose", lacking nothing.

Remember Jeremiah 29:11? "'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'".  God has plans for each of us.  So, trials in our life are the testing of our faith which push us toward the goal and purpose that God has for us. If we don't experience these trials, we don't become mature and complete and wouldn't reach those goals.

We can be assured that we will experience all kinds of trials and hardships in this life.  We can be joyful, even in the midst of those things, knowing that those things are working in us to mature our faith and put us one step closer to God's goal for us.