Meet Julie Vorce

James is writing to the twelve tribes of Israel who had come to faith in Christ and had been scattered after the persecution of Jewish Christians that followed the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church. Try to imagine for a moment what they were going through. They were the minority and faced persecution from oppressive Jewish leaders. Christians were killed for proclaiming their faith in Jesus. There is no question they were scared and probably questioning their faith.

James's intent when writing this epistle was to strengthen the Jewish Christians' faith and encourage them to face trials with perseverance. James says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds." I'm sure many of them thought James was crazy to use the word joy when describing how to view trials. Even to this day, many Christians wouldn't use the word joy. How many of us complain about trials, tribulations, and struggles? That attitude toward trials is not what the Lord intended. Instead of looking at trials with all joy and a positive attitude, we quickly complain about our circumstances and question God. We often forget that the Lord can use any trial for good. We focus on escaping from our trials, rather than gaining every possible benefit from them.

Why should we consider trials as joy? Trials are a means to shape believers into people that will bring glory to God. When we steadfastly submit to God and allow Him to work in us through trials, we will then "be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:4).

Think about the refining process of gold. To remove the impurities from gold, it must go through fire. When foreign matter is removed (at the proper time), the gold is pure and free from all impurities. Like gold, our faith can be stripped of all our impurities when we go through the fire of trials. As we mature in our faith, we become prepared to face life's adversities because of our deep reliance upon the sufficiency and grace of God.