Nobody wants to go through affliction, right? Even thinking about different difficult situations in our lives fills us with fear, and if we had the opportunity to avoid them, we would do it without thinking twice.
But that is not our reality. We live in a world where sin has affected absolutely everything. We are damaged and incomplete because of sin, and so is our world. Sin affected the world and the perfect humanity that God had created, and transformed it into one full of pain, where things do not always turn out as we want, where there is illness, death, disappointment, unsatisfied longings… and the list could go on.
The tests are real. We only need to be alive to suffer.
A world upside down
Faced with this panorama where pain is lurking, the words from God that we find in the book of Santiago call my attention:
“Have great joy, my brothers, when you find yourself in various trials”, James 1:2.
When reading these lines we might think that Santiago has lost his mind! “Rejoice when you are in trials!” “You are suffering, be happy!” Reading words like these can be shocking when we’re grieving the death of a loved one, or battling an illness that won’t get better, or in the throes of a broken relationship.
But the reason this call can hit us is because we may not have a clear understanding of what it means.
In these lines, James is not telling us to want trials or difficulties. He is not telling us that he should not hurt us, or that we should enjoy our afflictions.
What James is calling us to is make a decision to experience joy in times of difficulty. Is this possible? It definitely is. Paul himself told the Corinthians that he overflowed with joy in the midst of his afflictions (2 Cor. 7:14), and we know that Paul’s were many!
understand joy
Now, what is James referring to when he tells us about having joy? How can we define it? We could see it as an attitude of well-being in the heart that the Holy Spirit produces as we see the beauty of Christ in his work and in his Word.
Having joy in the midst of trials is a calling, and at the same time it is something that we ourselves cannot produce. How is this possible, then?
Galatians 5:22 teaches us that joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit, and therefore it is something that only He can produce. However, the fruit of the Spirit is produced in us by feeding the Spirit and not the flesh, and one of the ways we do this is by going to His Word, knowing Christ and his beauty through it, and responding in it. obedience.
So, the Holy Spirit produces joy in us to the extent that his Word is our food and source of delight.
Seeing the beauty of Christ, knowing his character through his Word is essential so that we can have joy in the midst of affliction.
The psalmist said: “If Your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction” (Ps. 119:92).
Seeing the beauty of Christ and knowing his character through his Word is essential so that we can have joy in the midst of affliction, so that in our soul there is well-being based on what God is, regardless of whether our ship is in the middle of a storm.
the test of faith
The passage from James continues and gives us the reason why we should have joy in the midst of trials. Affliction produces perseverance in us (James 1:3). In the midst of afflictions, the muscle of our faith is strengthened, and as a result we are molded into the image of Christ.
When my eyes are on God and his work in us, even in the midst of the biggest storm, we can have joy.
There is something else about the tests in this first chapter of James that I would not want to fail to mention. James, speaking in the context of trials, after telling us what it produces in us, brings to the stage the need for wisdom: “And if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all abundantly and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).
When my eyes are on God and his work in us, even in the midst of the biggest storm, we can have joy.
I don’t know about you, but wisdom is not something I commonly ask for in the midst of grief. I usually ask for wisdom when I have to make a decision or give an answer.
But the reality is that it makes a lot of sense to ask for wisdom in the midst of affliction. We could say that wisdom is seeing the world and my circumstances as God sees them, and then acting based on that knowledge.
Considering this definition, how does God view our suffering?
- Light and fleeting (2 Cor. 4:17)
- It produces fruit in us (2 Cor. 4:17)
- Work for good (Rom. 8:28)
- It allows us to be comforted by God and to comfort others (2 Cor. 1:4)
- In the future, God himself will make all things new (Rev. 21:5)
In the midst of affliction we need the wisdom it takes to learn to see our tribulation in this way and then respond. When we see suffering as God sees it through his Word, and embrace these truths, our heart’s natural response will be joy in the midst of sorrow.
And there, in the heat of the fire, but under the faithful care of our Good Shepherd, we will be molded in his glorious image, and we will be able to have great joy in the midst of trials.
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