Considering It Pure Joy

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does."  James 1:2-8

I was reminded of this passage yesterday (thanks Mom).  This year has been especially hard to "consider it pure joy".  Great loss has consumed all of us in many ways.  Though we know through Christ we have hope, we have felt several voids in our lives.  We have faced trials this year and yet we know we have been incredibly blessed even in the midst of these trials.  But to consider it pure joy... that's hard.

A dear friend and teacher of the Word has said several times, "God didn't put things in the Bible that were easy for us to do.  What He tells us to do is what our flesh does not want to do.  It's the things that don't come easily."  And this idea of considering it pure joy has hit me from many angles this week, so I'm pretty sure God has this message for me!

I've been reading "Joy! to Your World!  A Countdown to Christmas" on my Bible app.  The focus of the devotional one day was that "Christmas is a reminder that we must always keep our focus on His Divinity and not on our frail humanity."  Later it says, "Our plans pale in comparison to His interruptions!  The most significant desire that you will ever embrace is to ask God to interrupt your life with His love and His plans."  That word "desire" reminded me of a time a few years ago when my heart ached to adopt a child.  Through that process there was much heartache, ups and downs, but I chose for several months to focus on one scripture, "Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4.  He knew the desires of my heart, but I hadn't done much delighting in Him.  So for days, weeks, months, I focused on what it means to delight in the LORD.  Every day I found something to delight in.  And even in my heartache and sadness, I began to truly delight in our Maker, Creator, the Lord of lords.  My desires were later fulfilled as a little girl was added to our family, Eden, whose name means "Delight".  She is and I did!

So I went back and read that Psalm.  I read the first seven verses and I saw "do not worry... trust in the LORD.... delight in the LORD.... commit to the LORD.... be still before the LORD.... wait patiently for him".  In my grief, in my sadness, in my full-on pity party, I hastily wanted to fix things myself.  I wanted to make it all better, though I hadn't a clue how.  I was at a loss.  And there it was.  God himself had given me the answer long before I had questions.  "Delight yourself in the LORD"  "Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds"

Today in my reading I read about disappointment and heartbreak and allowing that to be changed because of the promise of Christmas.  A Savior was born!  Hope came to the world in a manger.  And then the scripture for the day was from Romans 5.  Verses 3-5 say this, "We also have joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience.  And patience produces character, and character produces hope.  And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts.  He gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us."

Yesterday, I pulled out our family gratitude journal we kept at the dinner table a few years ago.  We wrote in it again at dinner for the first time in years.  As a family we will look for the goodness of God together, we will delight in Him together, and we will consider it pure joy even in these trials.  And ultimately our faith in these trials will develop perseverance and perseverance will mature and complete us.  Oh, I long for the day!