Count it all Joy

Hey Y'all! I have to warn you, this post might be hard to swallow. It know for myself personally, this is a topic I struggle with and have to really fight my flesh on a regular basis. Take a breath, say a prayer, and ask God to use this to encourage you today. I am praying it does. The topic for today is having joy (real joy) during trying and difficult times, really all the time.

So does this mean when I have a family member or even myself personally struggling with a deadly disease, I am supposed to have joy? Yes. What about when I have a child who is defiant and is in rebellion, I am supposed to have joy? Yes. How about when my spouse has lost his/her job and we don't have the money to pay even our necessary bills....I should have joy then too? Yes. The answer, no matter what your circumstance is Yes, Yes, Yes!

Y'all this can be so hard, but we have to remove our emotions from the situation and use our brains to hear what God says in His word. Listen to James 1:2-4 "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

I love how Mark explained this in his sermon last Sunday (my inspiration for this post, such an important topic). That word Count actually means to lead. Say what? Think about it....we are to lead our minds to see our circumstances as joyful. It isn't something that is going to happen naturally. Far too often we allow our emotions to take the lead. Our culture will tell us we should get angry, sad, feel hopeless, or depressed when we face difficult times. However, God's word says we are to count it joy. We are to lead our mind to think God's thoughts. This is another way as a Christian we are able to look different than the world around us. Emotions are not bad, but they were not created and given to us to control us. They are a warning to our mind that something is happening in our life. Our emotions should be an alert to let us know we need to start thinking about the situation we are in from the perspective of what God says.

I also love the word used in scripture here; when. Not if you face trials, but when. It is inevitable. You will face difficult times, tempting times, and hard times. It is part of living life in a fallen world. However, there is hope in this verse. When we face these trials and count them joy (thinking about them the way God intends) it leads to something.....steadfastness. And when we LET steadfastness have its full effect it makes us like Jesus (perfect and complete, lacking nothing).

Y'all think about this. If you are trying to break a habit and start a new one, the first time you make that decision to do things differently is hard. Like sit in the floor and want to cry hard. That is the same way it is when we decide to look at our circumstances with joy. We don't want to, it doesn't make sense, and we would rather have a pity party. However, when we pray and realize that even though we don't understand what God is doing, we trust Him to be working our our behalf for our good and His glory. When we choose to make that decision in the face of trials, it becomes easier each time. It might take 100x making that decision before it feels "easier" but eventually it does and that is the steadfastness the verse is speaking about. And when we continue to do this, over time, we start to look, act, and think more like Jesus. Wow! If that is not your goal as a Christian, it should be. Period.

When we look more and more like Jesus, we lack nothing. We can face whatever comes our way knowing God is good and we are able to let go of that need to understand. This is huge to me. I want control and I want to understand why things are happening around me, especially hard times. But I have to remind myself that I am not God. He is and He is good and perfect. If I don't understand a situation, I need to seek Him and be okay with never understanding. This is hard. For example, in my own life, I do not understand why God allowed us to go through 3 miscarriages after 2 perfectly healthy babies when nothing wrong could be found. I simply don't understand but I can count it joy knowing that God is using that circumstance in my life for His good. I might never fully see how that is happening, but I trust that it is. Some days are harder than others. I am not perfect in this but God is growing my faith and trust in Him to allow me to think differently about the trials I face.

There is so much encouragement here if we allow ourselves to lead our minds to think differently. Knowing, and I mean really knowing that God is working for our good through trials and being able to consider them joy. Listen to the sermon I linked above to hear more details around this topic and allow God to change your thinking. When we seek to be more like Him with our thoughts and actions, He will produce steadfastness which in turn makes us complete and lacking nothing. There is purpose in our suffering and it is to make us steadfast and more like Jesus. How amazing is He! I love you all. Till next time.

This song is such an encouragement to me when going through "stuff". Listen up.