Count It All Joy

James says something that, on first hearing, sounds almost offensive: count it all joy when you fall into various trials. He is not telling us to enjoy suffering, nor to pretend that trials are pleasant, they are not, and the Bible never asks us to fake it. The key is in the next word: "knowing." We can count trials as occasions for joy not because of what they are in themselves, but because of what we know God is doing through them, "the testing of your faith produces patience," and, James goes on, a maturity that lacks nothing.

This is gratitude at its most mature and most tested: the ability to give thanks even in hardship, because we trust that God is at work in it for our good. It is not gratitude for the trial as if it were good, but gratitude in the trial for the good God is bringing out of it, the faith being strengthened, the endurance being formed, the character being deepened. The grateful heart, schooled in God's promises, can look at a hard season and say, "I cannot see how, but I know You are working good in this, and for that I can give thanks."

When trials come, do not deny the difficulty, but do not miss what God is doing. Count it joy, not because it is easy, but because of what you know He is producing.