“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” (James 1:2-4).
Contrary to all conventional wisdom, the inspired penman James declares God’s expectation for His scattered bondservants to be joyful in life’s various trials. In spite of God’s clear expectation, many Christians are not. Often this is because of a lack of desire to be spiritually mature.
A highly successful basketball coach once observed, “Everybody wants to win, but not everybody wants to work to win.” There is a palpable difference between desiring to win and being willing to work hard enough in practice to be prepared to win.
The same can be said about spiritual maturity. Paying lip service to spiritual growth is not the same as joyously enduring the rigors of the “various trials” which are essential to it. The crown of life is only given to those who have endured temptation and been approved (improved) by it (James 1:12).
If you lack the desire to be spiritually mature, you will automatically embrace an accounting system which reckons life’s various trials as liabilities, not assets. With this accounting method, it is impossible to count it all joy when you fall into various trials.
