 The one thing we don't do as Christians is this. There is something in the Bible that we are told to do. We are told how to respond when this happens and rarely do we do it. As a matter of fact, not only are we missing out or are we disobeying God, and it's hard, I'll explain in a second, it's hard to do it, but we're actually hurting ourselves and missing out on a deeper blessing. That is when you go through trials, when you're suffering, when something bad is happening, do you really count it joy like the Bible tells us to? In James 1 he says, brothers, count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. But let's just be honest. How many of us, when we're going through a trial, when we're going through any sort of suffering, when we're having something bad happen to us, how many of us are trying to endure it and to count it joy, how many of us instead are asking God to remove it, to get rid of it? We don't wanna go through this. I'm telling you now, and I know this from experience, Lord knows I know this from experience, I've had enough experiences in my life to know that these bad things that we're going through, and Paul even has the audacity to say that these light and momentary afflictions, I don't think the things that I was crying out about felt like they were light and certainly didn't feel like they were momentary, but that's what he calls them. But it's in comparison to what we're gonna get, but all of those things that I've gone through, they actually did in looking back work something in me. How does that even work? Well, think about this. As a matter of fact, think about everyone in the Bible who has gone through something, someone who had a purpose in Christ, someone that God was using. Whenever they went through something, they came out much stronger. And what they had was instead of being able to say what God can do, they could now look back and point to what God will do, the ability, they have actual proof and they know for a fact who God is in their life. And what it does is it brings you closer to Him. When you're going through something and only God can fix it, well, that means you're now forced to focus on Him and Him only. It doesn't matter what the friends say. It doesn't matter what the financiers say. It doesn't matter what doctors say. It doesn't matter what colleagues say. No, it doesn't matter what the news says or anything like that. It doesn't matter what social media says. The only person you can turn to, because in many cases you might be forced to only turn to Him, is God. And you develop this intimate relationship. Let's go back and look at the passage a little bit more. It says, consider all joy, my brother, when you encounter these various trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Have you ever seen someone going through something and they just seem so calm, so steady, as though what they were going through didn't bother them? Well, that doesn't happen overnight. That is built up or that's the result of something happening to someone and they recognize that it's not that big a deal because I recognize something. I'll share this with you a little bit. They recognize something about God and them and where God is in proximity to them with them going through their trials. Let's go back to it. He says, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be complete, lacking nothing. Well, evidently God wants us to be able to endure. Evidently God wants us to be able to go through things and be able to handle things. And unfortunately when we don't, when we become disheartened, things take too long to leave us. The suffering takes too long to leave us. We end up becoming frustrated and resorting to drastic means, means that God has no desire for us to be engaged in. People in prison resort to drastic means. They took actions in their own hand either for finances, to take care of a problem or a threat. Maybe some who's there on a sex offense charge because of one of the reasons, because of frustration, they do things they ought not do. There's a lack of patience there. And the same thing is there when it comes to Christian. But look what he also says in James. He says, blesses a man who endures or perseveres under trials. Blessed, happy is that person. That person is happy. The person who can endure or persevere under trial for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life. There are spiritual implications to this as well. As a matter of fact, let me point to another passage that Peter brings up in 1 Peter 2, 19. He says, for this is a gracious thing. A gracious gift, as a matter of fact, a gift, the word that's used here is the word gift, kairus, thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrow while suffering unjustly. And so sometimes there are gonna be some things that you endure that you didn't create. Some things you deal with, you go through, are your creation. Some things have nothing to do with you. But he speaks about it being a gift. How is that a gift? Well, when you go back and look at all the things that God has brought you through, if you have a relationship with Christ, how much more is your relationship, your walk within a strength because you've had intimate relationship with him because you were going through something and it was just you and him. And he just poured into you. You were able to just spend time praising him, praying to him, talking to him, reading his word. And it developed this closeness with you that the world can't identify with. It doesn't make any sense, but you are stronger in him. That's the whole point. And it's something that the disciples had to learn. Remember they were going through the storm. They were in the boat. The waves and wind were bouncing back and forth against the boat and they were afraid. But Jesus was in the boat and they cried out. After a while of crying out frantically, worrying they cry out to him. And then he rebuked, and they get a chance to see how he is and who he is and realize after he rebukes him for their lack of faith. Because what does the Bible just tell us that it's going to produce these trials is going to produce even more faith. And he tells them that it's those you have no faith. And they ultimately realized, I'm pretty sure at some point when they went back and thought about it, Jesus was in the boat with us. And so when you've got this close relationship with him, when you've got this relationship with him and you know that no matter what it is you're going through, he's there with you. And he's not gonna allow you to go through something that you can't handle. And so whatever it is that you're going through it's going to produce. As the Bible says, let's go back to it. I wanna put it back on the screen again because I think it needs just to be stated over and over again because we don't do well with this. He says that it is going to, the test of our faith produces endurance. Endurance what? The kind of faith that can endure whatever. Small things, big things, inconvenient things. And what we then can do is we start realizing this is why he says, count it all joy. Be happy about it. Why? Not for the unpleasant things that we're going through. Not for the discomfort, but because of what it's going to do and the fact that God thinks and knows that you can make it through. He's not putting on you more than you can bear. And so for that reason if he counts you worthy to grow you, then count it joy. Amen.