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In the movie “The Princess Bride”, the Princess is looking for her true love, Westley, and she has just found out that he may have been killed. She confronts the Dread Pirate Roberts, but what she does not know is that HE IS Westley in disguise.  She is sad and he responds to her so heartlessly, and she yells at him, “You mock my pain!” , to which he responds, “Life IS pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”  

 

Life on earth DOES involve experiencing pain, loss and/or disappointment. Because of sin, we can be guaranteed our fair share of pain (or trials) on this side of Heaven.  We have no control over that.  Life can be tough sometimes.  TOUGH!  We all have had someone close to us die, or possibly parents divorce, or had to deal with a sickness or financial difficulties.  It is not IF we are going to have trials, it is WHEN we are going to have trials.  Rich or poor--trials, difficulties, death, sickness affect us all.  Trials are going to happen no matter what—we cannot change that. What we can change, though, what we DO have control over is our response to the pain or trials.

 

James 1:2 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds."

How would you define a trial?  A trial is anything that causes fear or does not go the way we had hoped or planned. Count it as joy—what does he mean by “joy” here? It means a confidence that God is in complete control.  Trusting God to be in complete control is about the same as trusting a pilot flying a commercial airplane.  You do not know how they do it, but you trust pilots enough to get you where you want to go.  All the switches and lights and dials mean absolutely nothing to most of us. But of course they tell the pilots exactly where they are, and what they need to know to enable them to safely fly that plane.  It is the same with God, we do not always understand what is happening around us, but we do not have to! God does and He IS in complete control.

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James says if we choose joy—understanding God is completely in control during our trials—we will receive certain rewards in our lives.  That is what growing thru trials is all about.  Trials can be heartbreaking, cause us physical pain, or cause us to grieve.   Is it wrong to be sad when these things happen to us? No, but we cannot give up or give in to it.  We have to learn from it. 

 

James 1:3 says, "... because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."  James was writing his letter to people in need.  Many of them had recently lost their homes, families and all of their belongings.  They were very familiar with suffering.  James wanted to encourage them not to waste this opportunity for growth by blaming God for what had happened.  

 

How do we gain strength?  It comes from repetition. Athletes know this well—a runner does not abandon his opportunities to run and build endurance.  And when we grow through our trials and we choose joy, then we gain strength.  Take gold for an example.  Gold is an amazing metal.  But the pure gold that they use to make rings and jewelry has to go through a process first.  In its original state, it is not strong enough.  The impurities in the gold weaken it.  So it has to go through a process of refining.  During this process the gold is heated to extreme hot temperatures until it melts—then it is poured into a ring mold.  This process allows the dross, or the impurities, to be burned or scraped away.  When the ring is cooled, it is shiny, strong and pure.  What is the point of that illustration?  The point is that God allows the heat of pain and trials to bring about purity in our lives by making us depend on Him. 

 

James 1:4 says, "Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  What does it mean to be mature? It means to be fully grown or developed.  Do you think someone can be old but still immature? Most definitely.  Maturity is more about character and less about age.  Not only do our trials help build strength, which leads to perseverance (that is, continuing to do something in spite of difficulties), but the whole process is not considered complete until the trial actually produces maturity in us.

           

Have you ever smelled cow or chicken manure?  Manure is gross and it stinks. But what does it do for plants and grass?  It is the best thing you can put on them! Why is that? It makes things grow!  It is the oldest known fertilizer.  Trials are like manure in our lives.  Trials stink, but they have a purpose.  They cause growth and maturity because we learn to trust God rather than ourselves.  When that happens regularly, spiritual growth takes place.   Spiritual maturity CANNOT happen apart from trials.  We NEED trials to grow!

 

Read James 1:4 again—"complete, not lacking anything."  What does it mean to be complete and why should we want to be complete?  Ultimately, we will be totally complete with Jesus in Heaven.  But we can also experience semi-completeness here on earth by becoming more and more like Christ in our day-to-day living.  The apostle Paul had so many bad things happen to him.  He was blinded, imprisoned, stoned and left for dead, beaten, ridiculed and slandered, abandoned, snake bit.  But in 2 Corinthians 4:17, Paul says, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 

 

When we choose to grow through the trials instead of letting them make us bitter, we are actually allowing God to make us more like Jesus—and that’s what being a Christian is all about.  Trials give us a great opportunity to look at our hearts.

 

God wants us to have all we need to be competent, and confident servants.  When we GO through trials instead of GROWING through them, we actually miss out on being a more complete person.  We miss benefits that we will need later.  It is not easy choosing to grow through trials instead of just going through them.  Sometimes it is downright tough, but it is not impossible.  When we finally have the eternal glory Paul talked about, we will probably not even remember the problems and trials we went through.  Remember the eternal glory that awaits YOU!

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