COUNT IT ALL JOY

James 1:2

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

While studying this text, two words stood out to me. The first being Trials and the second, Testing. These are words that we often see when we're about to move to the next level in the academic sphere. When it's time to separate the men from the boys, the women from the girls, the cats from the kittens and so on. It got me thinking because I understood that our God is a God of high standards. Inasmuch as He wills to save everyone (John 6:40), He’s also very much interested in gathering to Himself men and women who are of heavy stature; who have been weighed on the scales and not found wanting (Daniel 5:27). He’s interested in Quality over Quantity.

Now the Apostle James, who had had his fair share of trials came to the understanding that first of all, as a child of God, you will at some point in your life fall and not only into a trial but trials! So that alone is debunking that utopian ideology that once you’re in Christ, you are free from all sorts of issues, from all sorts of problems. It’s an up life! Yes, it’s true the life in Christ is from glory to glory but you cannot experience the glory without having to climb up the mount on an empty stomach which as a matter of fact is not a light task. We want our face to shine like Moses but how many of us are willing to fast for 40 days and 40 nights in constant communication with God? – Exodus 19. The Man Jesus reiterates this in Matthew 16:24-26 by saying that “if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me”. The Apostle Peter then went ahead to be more precise in his speech in 1 Peter 4:12-14 when he said “we shouldn’t think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try us as though something happened to us…” We can deduce that the early Christians also thought it strange that they were going through persecution and tribulation and trials. They, like many of us were confused because they thought the life in Christ meant a life devoid of any form of trouble so the Apostle Peter had to come tell them that it’s not a strange phenomenon.

Trials come to promote you; temptations come to demote you.

The Apostle James said that the tests produce patience – James 1:2. Other bible versions say endurance and the endurance leads to us being perfect and complete, lacking nothing! We lack nothing not because all our needs are met but because we’ve learnt through our trials to become reliant only on God and not in our riches or talents so we’re truly content with such things as we have! He went on further to clarify in the verse 13 of the same chapter, the differences between tests and temptation saying that “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He Himself tempt anyone." God does not tempt, He tests. He is in the business of trials because trials come to test our strengths whereas temptations come to test our weaknesses. Trials come to promote you; temptations come to demote you. A very good example of a trial is the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22:1-18 then we have the story of Christ and Satan in Matthew 4:1-11 as a good example of a temptation. Enduring both trials and temptations lead to rewards as stated in James 1:12 and our endurance is a show of our love for the Lord.

We love to confess that we’re the seed of Abraham but before the promise which states that “in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”, we must be willing to lay Isaac on the alter!

So, I’m writing this prophetically. Most of us will find ourselves going through various trials and tests from the Lord during this period. It was while writing this that the Holy Spirit prompted me that we’re in the lent period. The spirit of God may have spoken to you to give something up. It could be your time, money, resources, social media and so on and some of you might be thinking it is your mind. Why would God ask me to give up half of my salary or to give up one of the two phones I have to a nephew who is ungrateful or the watch I recently bought for 1k? I’m laughing now because I know I’m describing someone’s situation. I also will not be typing this if I have not myself gone through the mill. More than once I’ve found God asking me to empty my account. I will not write emphatically that obeying the voice of God was easy for me. I had to grapple with it severally but one thing that also helped me pay attention to the voice was while trying to escape like Jonah, my peace always left me. It was as if I had this burden and until I obeyed, I wouldn’t have my peace. Fortunately, I haven’t disobeyed so I can’t share the consequences of not enduring the tests of God. The testimonies after my obedience however were definitely worthwhile. Some of them took days to manifest, others weeks, others months and like the case of Abraham, others tend to be everlasting. We love to confess that we’re the seed of Abraham but before the promise which states that “in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”, we must be willing to lay Isaac on the alter! Abraham understood that if God could give him Isaac at his old age, which was biologically impossible, why won’t He be able to give him another son. In the words of Prophet Samuel Agyekum, “if God cannot have whatever you have, whatever that you have has you”. We should be able to release it, knowing that we are only stewards and that He’s setting us up for a promotion or He’s bringing us into perfection as the Apostle James put it. May the Lord give us the grace to be more dependent on Him. Count it all joy!