Growing in the Dark (James 1:2-4)
According to my biologist friends, the part of the plant energy cycle that is best known is photosynthesis. This is the process whereby a plant turns light into nutrients and energy for plants to grow. This is the part we know best because it is the part that we studied in school and it is the part that we think of when we gaze upon a lush garden, flower garden or forest in the middle of a sunny day, but there is another side of this equation.
Plants must also go through certain processes in the dark to make sure that there is enough fuel to make the light processes work. It is in the dark processes that the plant produces some of the chemicals that make the light process possible. If it were not for the dark processes, the light processes would be pointless.
It is the same for you and I. God often works in our lives through the difficulties that we face. It is through these times that we learn most about Him. In our day of name it and claim it, prosperity preaching, we might just forget that. For those that draw crowds by telling them that God wants you to live your best life now, their people often walk away from God dejected when they face difficulty because they have not learned this lesson.
In James 1:2, James, the half-brother of Jesus, tells us to count it all joy when face trials of various kinds. That seems like a tall order, but he does not stop there. He goes on to explain how to do this. Other authors of the Bible have also helped us with understanding this strange command. Consider the following:
James 1:3-4 tells us it will help if we remember that trials serve a purpose. They are the means by which we are conditioned to persevere in our faith. It is the means by which God grows us up so that we lack nothing to help us in the fight of life.
1 Peter 1:3-6 reminds us that our trials are only temporary. Even though, in the middle of those trials, they seem like they will never end and that they will never stop getting harder and harder to live by, we are reminded that they are temporary. That is why the Bible often says, and it came to pass. It will pass, whether you feel like it or not.
1 Peter 1:7-9 reminds us our suffering matters to God. He is not as the Deist would believe. He is not a disinterested, unknowable God. He is not impersonal. He knows us and He knows our hearts. If it matters to us, it is because it first mattered to Him.
1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us God will not abandon us over to our trials, but is with us and will provide a way to escape. This may be when He takes us home, but He will provide a way of escape.
Psalm 97:1-6 reminds us that God is in the fire, the disaster and the earthquake. He is still in control. Even in Job, God put limits on what Satan could do. He is still in control.
1 Corinthians 10:16-31 tells that we should expect God to work mightily in our trials. This is where many of us lack. We just want out of them instead of looking for God is doing through them.
John 15:18-21 tells us that we face trials because the enemy sees Christ living in us and God knows He is able and can walk with us through them. If Jesus faced trials, what makes us think we shouldn’t?
If you are struggling with trials, read the scriptures above and ask God to give you the wisdom to see Him and His plan.