The Blessing of 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 ESV)

We all face trials in life. As we live in an imperfect world filled with imperfect people, we endure difficulties of various kinds. Circumstances arise that not only make our faith challenging, but do the same with life itself.

We don’t enjoy these struggles. In fact, most of us view our trials as a curse. As we encounter them, as we deal with them, we often question God. We don’t tend to think that anything good could come of them.

James, however, encourages the opposite mindset. He says that we’re to count it all joy when we experience trials. We are to face them gladly. We are to count them as a grace. We are to count them as a blessing. 

We’re to do so because of their effect upon our faith. These trials test our faith, he says. And the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. It produces endurance, perseverance, and patience.

The implication, in the words of James, is that these qualities would not be developed apart from trials. They would not be produced without hardship. We would remain in an infantile state as far as our faith is concerned.

This is why he goes on to say that we’re to let steadfastness have its full effect. We’re to do so that we may be perfect and complete. We’re to do so that we’ll be lacking in nothing.

He isn’t suggesting that we’ll be sinless on this side of eternity. What James is saying is that we’ll become mature in our faith. And, as a result, we’ll reach the goal of our faith. We’ll receive the blessing of everlasting life.

Even though we don’t consider them such, it’s clear that our trials serve as a blessing. It’s safe to say that none of us welcome or enjoy the trials we face. But, even so, these trials are used by God to bestow his blessing upon us. They are used to build our faith in him that it might become more sure.

Recognizing this, we can approach our trials differently. We can approach them confident that God will use them for our good. We can approach them knowing that they will be used by God to establish us in faith.