Rejoice Because of Trials?

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    James 1:2-3 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

The all-wise, all-knowing Lord sees endurance is of such immense value that this divinely inspired passage continues:

    James 1:4 Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Now study what God taught Paul:

    Romans 5:3-5  . . . rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

He too, moved by the Spirit of God, says we have reason to rejoice when things are agonizingly difficult, because such times produce endurance. (Not only do endurance and perseverance mean virtually the same thing, in the original, both James and Paul used the same Greek word). Like James, Paul then goes on to explain that endurance produces spiritually beneficial things.

An escape plan would abort the entire process.

We noted earlier that the inspired Word of God keeps repeatedly referring to the Christian life as a race or competition. What matters most in such events is not a spectacular start, nor even a supernatural boost in the middle, but how one finishes. If so, the Christian life hinges primarily, not on a one-off spiritual experience – as exciting and valuable as a spiritual breakthrough can be – but on endurance/perseverance. This is confirmed by many Scriptures. For example, “he who endures to the end will be saved” is such an important part of Jesus’ message that it appears twice in the same Gospel – Matthew 10:22; 24:13, emphasis mine).

So how does the inspired Word say that endurance (or perseverance) is built into our lives? You will have noted in the above quotes that James says it is built by temptations or trials (different translations of the same word), whereas Paul says it is suffering that achieves this. In other words: hard times. These are the situations from which we would dearly like supernatural deliverance, but instead of suggesting praying for such intervention, God in his Word tells us to rejoice because hard times build endurance, which is of great spiritual value.

A supernatural deliverance would abort the entire process.

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