Joy in Trials

 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

James 1:2-3

I’ve read this verse so many times in my life but never really stopped to think about what it means.  The first reaction to verse 2 is “yeah right!”  Consider it joy? Are you nuts?  BUT … I  have to stop and contemplate verse 3 before the prior verse makes sense.  At least to me it makes sense.   Many people who know what I’ve faced in my life would say – and have said - that I’m crazy for believing this but I have proved these verses to be true many times.

I have learned to look at joy in a different way.  Joy is not being happy all the time.  Far from it – at least far from the worlds’ perception of  happy.  It is being able to look at things from a different perspective.  To me joy is looking at things from the inside and making a choice to feel joy inside not just to have a  feeling of being  happy.  The dictionary that I looked at online said that joy was “A feeling of great pleasure and happiness.”  That is true from a human perspective.  From a Biblical perspective I think – no, I know, it is different.  It is an inward feeling of contentment.  It is a being happy because you know and serve the Lord.  It is a choice I – and other Christians -  make.

I look at life differently since I’ve been ill.  I used to think I was happy when everything was going ‘my way’ and I wasn’t really facing any ‘trials’.  How wrong I was.  As I look back over my life it is the trials that have made me who I am.  It is the trials which have made me stronger and it is through the trials that I have found an inner joy, an inner happiness – a feeling of contentment.

In times of trial, I have learned … ok, I’m still learning … to stop and pray first and then reach out to my Christian community of friends – many of them online friends who I have never met in person.  I have had the privilege of meeting a couple of those friends in person and we talked and talked and talked as though we had known each other personally for most of our lives.  It is our common denominator of serving the Lord and looking to Him for our joy that makes us such good friends.  I have met people from all over the world and we understand each other because we’ve all faced so many physical and mental trials and have helped each other through these times.  The Lord leads us to each other.  

Joy is something I choose. 

I have had joy through those times of serious illness.  They are times of joy because I know that the Lord got me through each trial and will get me through whatever the next trial is.  It is a joy that comes from the Lord – not from my humanness. 

Joy comes from the inside.

Have I had joy all the time?  Truthfully, no.   I wish I could say that my faith was strong enough that I had never have had times when I wasn’t joyful in the trials.  But, God made me a human and as a human I make mistakes.  I forget to look to Him for the Joy.  And often it Is through reading things that my online friends have written that have brought me back to a place of joy. I am brought back to a place of joy because I know others are praying for me.  I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that there WILL be more trials to face in my life.  But I also KNOW that if I turn to the Lord, HE will give me true joy and will hold my hand through whatever it is I face.  I am facing trials now but I have an inner joy that I can only wish I had had all of my life.  It took a lot of trials for me to learn to lean on God for my joy and not lean on myself.  Does that mean I’m happy all the time – definitely not but I do have joy.

The truly joyous thing is to know that even though I have messed up many times and not turned to the Lord first and held on to Him, HE has never turned away from me and never stopped holding on to me.   I love the poem ‘Footsteps in the Sand’. That poem says it all.  No matter what we face, the Lord never leaves any of us even when we aren’t leaning on Him.  Mary Stevenson (Zangare) knew what she was speaking about when she penned that poem in the 1930’s.   It has become well known and has helped many through their journeys of trial.  For more on that poem go to http://www.footprints-inthe-sand.com/    What can bring more joy that to know that you are being carried by the Lord through the rough times?

I pray that you too find the inner joy that I’m speaking of, if you do not already know it.  It will change your life. I can promise you that.