I heard a story about a goose that forgot to fly South for the winter, and when he finally remembered that he was supposed to fly South several weeks late, he decided he better try to get there as quickly as possible. So he takes off flying South and at some point, he got so cold he decided to land in a field and rest a bit until daybreak came and it warmed up again. However, when he got in the field, the temperature dropped and it got so cold he couldn’t even moves his wings. He thought to himself, man, this just can’t get any worse. Well, about that time, a cow came by – and a cow is only good at two things, eating and making a mess. When that cow came by the goose, he made a mess all over the goose. The goose said to himself, “NOW there is no way life can get any worse than this.” But, something began to happen, the goose noticed that he began to warm up and was able to move its wings again. And about that time, a fox came by and began cleaning the mess off of the goose. When he finished cleaning the goose – he ate him. There is a moral to this story though, and it is this:
“Not everyone that gets you into a mess is your enemy, and not everyone that gets you out of a mess is a friend!”
Now I want to talk to you about the “Getting out of Life’s Messes.” In James chapter 1, verses 2-4, James is talking to us about trials – how to deal with trials, how to handle trials, and in fact, how to pass the test of our trials.
We’ve all seen the bumper sticker or heard the phrase, “If your life was put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” But I want to ask you a slightly different question: If your faith was tested right now, what type of grade do you think you would receive? If somehow, we were able to give everyone reading this blog a test of their faith right now, what grade would you receive?
Would you receive an A+ for your faith, or would you struggle to get an F? Reminds me of a college student that took and exam at mid-terms and received a Zero. He went to his professor and said, “Well Sir, I just don’t think I deserved a Zero on my test.” The Professor replied, “I don’t think you deserved a Zero either, but Zero was as low as I could go.”
Now, let me make a distinction of several terms James uses in this chapter. He uses the terms Trials and Temptations:
- Trials are a means of testing your faith – Temptations are to destroy your faith.
- A Trial is for your maturity – a Temptation is for your misery;
- Trials are used by God to make you strong – Temptations are used by Satan to make you weak;
- God uses Trials to help us stand – Satan uses Temptations to cause us to fall;
Now I want to give you four things about trials out of these verses:
THE REALITY OF TRIALS (v.2)
James says in verse 2, “My Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diver’s temptations.”
Now, if you and I are going to pass the test of trials in our lives, we have to realize that trials, tribulations and troubles will come into our lives. There are no exemptions and there are no free passes from these “Test of our faith.” Let me show you two things about the Reality of Trials:
- Trials are Unavoidable
I want you to understand that trials WILL take place in your life. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care how long you have been a Christian; I don’t care how much money you have; I don’t care how much family you have; I don’t care what kind of car you drive or how big your house is – Trials WILL take place in your life. Job 5:7 says, “Man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward.”
Just as surely as the sparks of a camp-fire fly upward – you are going to face trials, troubles, tribulations in your life.
I have heard preachers say before, “Now, if you don’t want any more troubles in your life, then you need to become a Christian.” Folks, I’m telling you the Bible says man’s days a few and full of trouble – for both the Christian – and the non-Christian.
Job himself, the Bible says, was blameless, upright and that he feared God – yet Job had more trouble in his life than any of us care to ever have to deal with. In one day, he lost his sheep, his oxen, his donkey’s his fields, his children – all in one day. Yet, he was blameless, upright and he feared God.
Daniel was another. Daniel was very faithful. He prayed three times a day – everyday. And you know what the reward of his faithfulness was? He got a free pass to the Lion’s Den.
Joseph was another. He was a man of the highest integrity and loyalty, yet he found himself in prison for a crime he did not commit.
The Apostle Paul, who I believe was one of, if not THE greatest Christian that ever lived, said, He was beaten more times than he can count – 5 times he received 39 lashes, 3 times he was beaten with rods – once he was stoned and left for dead, three times he was shipwrecked.
I say all that to drive home the truth that just because you are a Christian does not exempt you from the trials of your faith. And what is a real shocker is the fact that when trials come doesn’t always mean that you’ve done the wrong thing. We can grow weary in well-doing!
Peter tells us in I Peter 4:12, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:”
Now why would Peter say that? Because he knew that trials were unavoidable. But not only are trials Unavoidable:
- Trials are Unpredictable
James says, “Count it all joy when you FALL into diver’s temptations.” Notice that word FALL. Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan? The Bible says that while on the road to Jericho, he FELL among thieves. Now, this fellow wasn’t going out looking for trouble, he wasn’t looking for thieves on the road to Jericho, and those thieves were not necessarily looking for him in particular. The Bible says, “He fell among thieves.” In other words, he stumbled into it, it just kinda happened.
And that’s how troubles and trials are in our lives, we don’t have to look for them. We just stumbled into them, they just happen – they are UNAVOIDABLE and UNPREDICTABLE. They are going to happen to you, and they are going to happen to me!
Now you might be reading this and you’re thinking to yourself, “Now Joe, that’s a good passage, and you’re making a good point, but things are going great in my life and I haven’t had a trial in quite some time, so this really isn’t doing much for me.”
Well, I would simply submit to you that you don’t know what the next phone call holds for you! If may be a call at 6 pm on a Saturday evening telling you your brother was killed in an auto accident. It may be your kids calling you while you’re in sitting in class in Bible College telling you your wife is in jail. I submit to you that you have no idea what is NEXT around the corner of your life.
Folks, Trials in Your Life and in My life are UNAVOIDABLE AND UNPREDICTABLE. SO if you and I are going to get out of the messes in our lives, or pass the trials, we first have to understand the Reality of Trials.
THE REASON FOR TRIALS (v.3)
You see, when trials come into your, they are not there to make you unhappy. God doesn’t send trials into your life just to put you in misery. Many times God allows these messes to come into our lives and I believe according to James 1:3 for two reasons:
- God Allows Trials in my Life to Test My Faith.
James says, “Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” Notice that word trying. It literally means a baby bird that is testing its wings. It means to prove whether or not something is real. Or whether it can do or not what it has been designed to do. And one of the reasons for a trial is to Test out Faith – to Try our faith. And I think in every trial we face, God is asking us two questions:
- Do You Trust Me? Joe, Do you trust me? (Insert your name) do you trust me? When trials come along, I always find myself trying to handle them myself when all along God is just saying “DO YOU TRUST ME?”
- If You Trust Me, How Much Do You Trust me?
- God Allows Trials in my Life not only to Test my Faith, But also to Toughen my Faith
God’s not only testing our faith to see how strong our faith is, but He is working to make our faith even stronger. You see, when trials come into your life, they will do one of two things:
- They will either build you;
- Or, they will break you.
- They will either make you;
- Or they will mar you.
But God is trying to develop in you the kind of faith that will go the distance. God wants to develop in you the kind of faith that can withstand whatever comes your way because you are firmly anchored to Him!
Now for those of you who were in the military, we did one of two things – we were either in war, or we were training to go to war. Why did we train so much? Why did we push ourselves to the limits of our abilities? We did so to make us stronger, we did so to make us better, to prepare us. That’s exactly what happens with the trying of our faith – God is trying to make us better, stronger, more fit for the fight!
When my son Joshua was a teenager, he loved to skateboard, and I mean to the extreme. He would practice one single move, hour after hour. I would watch him fall and bust his knees in the pavement. Once I saw him cut his head open hitting the railing in the carport. He had blood running all down his face. I said to him, “Josh, why don’t you just quit skateboarding? He said this, and I’ll never forget it: “Dad, I didn’t buy this skateboard to learn how to quit – I bought it to learn how to skateboard.”
Listen, God doesn’t bring trials into our lives to teach us how to quit. But He allows trials to come into our lives to teach us how to live. God is trying to toughen, to strengthen our faith. That is the Reason for the Trials in verse 3. But notice also:
THE RESULT OF TRIALS (v.4)
James says in verse number 4, “But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James is trying that God has allowed these trials to come into our lives because there is some end product, there is something that He is trying to do, trying to accomplish in our lives. And I think there are two things God is trying to do through the trials in your life and in my life:
- The Trials In My Life are for My Enlargement and Our Enrichment
“Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect.” Now James isn’t talking here about sinless perfection. God doesn’t send trials into our lives to teach us to be sinless, but the idea of “perfect” has to do with the idea of being mature, to be strengthened, to grow! Through the trying of your faith and my faith, God is trying to make us into to mature, full grown, strong, healthy vibrant Christians.
The trials in our lives should be making us stronger Christians. It’s like an Oak tree that comes from an acorn. Reminds me of the children’s poem:
When you’re feeling discourage and feeling blue;
Look at the mighty Oak and see what a nut can do!
We may not be as big as God wants us to be, but what God is doing is trying to “Mature you” and Mature me. He is taking us from a small acorn and developing us into an Oak tree. He is taking us from “Where we are – to where He wants us to be!” God allows these trials for our ENLARGEMENT and Our ENRICHMENT: But, Finally
Not Only is there the Reality of Trials, the Reason for Trials and the Results of Trials,
THE RESPONSE TO TRIALS (v.2)
Let’s go back to verse 2, and here is a little phrase I skipped over, and I did so because I wanted to save this for last. James says in verse number 2, “My brethren, count it all joy . . .”
Now, we’ve just been talking about how Trials, tribulations and troubles are inevitable in our lives – we are all going to face them. We talked about the reason for those trials. And now I’m trying to tell you to Rejoice in those Trials? Well at first glance, that just doesn’t seem to make much sense does it?
But, when you and I come to realize the reason for those trials is to test us and to toughen us, and we realize that as a result of those trials we have become stronger and more mature in our walk with God – that is what God is trying to do in our lives. It is when we understand those things that we can do like James and we can “Count it all Joy” . . . when we fall into one of these these trials, when we fall into these tribulations, when we fall into these troubles. Hey, we didn’t go looking for them, but God sent them our way – So, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
Fighting for My Pea Patch 