Devotionals

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There is no way round it. No matter what way you read it, James’ exhortation to his readers in his introduction is simply, ‘Consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds’. If I am honest, I went to this text hoping that there was some way it could have been translated incorrectly, perhaps some linguistic loophole, but no. This gives us the challenge to look at why the apostle wrote that phrase and where it all fits in to the whole purpose of his letter.

He was writing to believing Jews who had been displaced and were often despised. These were people who were facing tough times that required authentic Christian living in order to survive as believers. Tough times require bottom-line truth and James knew that. It seems that growing up with Jesus had rubbed off on him and he had developed the family trait of straight talking.

He knew that he wanted to encourage his brothers and sisters in Christ and he wanted to give them the tools to get through whatever they would face. So after his salutation, he opens with a strong statement of intent. Literally he says, ‘All joy consider it, when you face multi-faceted trials unexpectedly’. Then, while they are still picking the jaws off the floor, he supplies the reason why: because the testing of your faith produces perseverance which, when we let that complete its work, will make us mature in the faith. So that’s it. The end goal is mature, consistent faith. In other words, the trials that come and hit us up the face as believers are part of what God uses to mature us, hence the ‘all joy’. The rejoicing happens when we see that what God is doing is investing in us. He has an unrelenting commitment to making us shine for Him and will use whatever it takes for that to happen.

Now that is a life-changing perspective and to get to that place is no easy task. In fact it is impossible. We simply cannot do this on our own. In order to be able to interpret our variegated trials as ‘all joy’ we need the wisdom of God. We need to live an integrated life of faith where we say to the Lord, ‘All I have is yours, and all I am is what you have made me. Help me to rejoice in you as I see what I am presently experiencing as Your way of grinding off more of my rough edges to reveal the diamond you are creating in me. I surrender to You, my Lord.’

This kind of surrender is far removed from the half-hearted superficiality that we often excuse as acceptable faith. For the apostle James, that sort of faith was never going to cut it. We need to decompartmentalise our lives so that the face we wear on a Sunday morning is the same one that we have worn all week. We need the wisdom of God to face life and a resolute conviction in our hearts that we will refuse to trust our own resources, intelligence and understanding to resolve our deepest struggles. We will depend on the living, giving God. We will make Him our refuge and strength and we will make His ambitions and goals ours.

The rest of James’ letter is a commentary on that principle. It is not so much about faith and works as faith that works. And the only kind of faith that does work is that the one that says, ‘I surrender.’

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