When life hands you a lemon what do you do? Make Lemonade! Or, better yet, squeeze it into some iced tea and make an Arnold Palmer!
Jesus said in John 16.33— “…in the world ye shall have tribulation.” Paul taught the believers in Acts 14.22— “…we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Trials and troubles do not diminish just because we get saved, often they intensify.
In the trial is where we find the manifested presence of God with us.
Let’s start by getting the right perspective on our problems. James led off in chapter 1 verse 1 with his declaration of servitude. You will never folio-through on the trials of life successfully if you aren’t already following. Now, James immediately cuts right to the heart of the matter in verse 2— “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;” The word “divers” means: ‘many’ and ‘various’.Reminds me of the term: kaleidoscope. A kaleidoscope of what…? Temptations. Make sure you note that there is a difference between a ‘trial’ and a ‘temptation’; and the text further says that God does not tempt, but He does test. Trials are common in this life. So when it says various kinds of temptations… this is not an enticement to sin, but rather to be put to the test.
It is a common thing then to have a kaleidoscope of problems hit you. Now, how are you supposed to deal with that? That’s the point of the text— ”count it all joy…” What?! Count or evaluate it as joy, because it is from God. I’ve got to tell you that this seems pretty hard to swallow. Problems come, because that’s life—Satan is going to try to capitalize off of it and tempt you away from God—God is helping from the inside to get a victory. The problems happen to everyone, but Christians have the potential of receiving something precious when we go through them.
Patience. If you let the temptations come, go through them, and succeed, then you receive a gift you desperately need in this life. Verse 3 says— “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”You get patience, meaning to endure. Troubles are coming, and life will happen, the rub is being able to endure the trial without losing our faith in the process.
Over time believers either lose their faith or gain more faith.
Frankly, God is trying to do something in you and for you— Let Him. Verse 4 continues with— “let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Facing the temptations and enduring through them makes you better. Handling the trial with patience means you get:
- “perfect”— complete, built up, grown up.
- “entire”— complete or fulfilled.
- “wanting nothing”— lacking nothing or satisfied
There are certainly things God wants to do for you and in you. The “perfect work” of patience is growth in you. It’s not the getting through the trial, but what we can benefit from it.
God is doing something in me and for me and I don’t want to miss it.
So what do I do so that I won’t miss it? Ask for wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him”(5). Lacking wisdom— is lacking God’s perspective. God will give it to you unconditionally and generously (liberally). He isn’t going to hold back (upbraideth not). And, He promises He will deliver (shall be given him).
Doesn’t that sound great? When you’re stuck and feeling like you’re not going to make it or you’re in the proverbial ‘fork in the road’— ask for God’s wisdom and He will give it to you, in bunches, and not hold back.
We shouldn’t just ask for ‘strength’ to simply ‘endure’ the trial. Nor should we ask for ‘deliverance’ just to get out of the trouble. We are to ask for wisdom so that we don’t miss the lesson and thereby miss our opportunity to grow. If you get the meaning of verse 5, please do so with the fortitude of verse 6… “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” When you ask— do it by Faith! The picture here is “waves”, that’s you, tossed and driven by the wind of the “sea”,that’s your circumstances or surroundings. So, if you don’t ask “in faith”, you will continue to be effected by your circumstances. That is a life out of control…just like all the other people around you.
Don’t try to take control; yield instead and ask God to take control. If you attempt to trust in yourself andGod, then verse 7 says— “For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” This person gets no help! Why again? He is trusting himself and God at the same time. That is why verse 8 says— “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Straight up— a lack of faith is double-mindedness.
When you trust yourself and God at the same time, you are double minded. You are trusting two at once: you and God equally. We are to love God 1st and foremost by putting faith in His ability and not ours.
Typically we have the tendency to go about handling it ourself anyway… meaning we push God out! This will simply lead to further instabilities in your life. You will eventually get to a place where the domino effect takes over and you will grow ever increasingly more frustrated. The Trials will keep coming and it will multiply like debt. When it was God’s will for you to be full of joy (1), grown compete and satisfied (4), showered with wisdom (5).
This is His plan, do you want it?