Consider It Joy

 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

James 1:2

What does it mean to have joy during trials?

My life has been full of suffering, and stress has been so bad lately that in two weeks I've lost about 10 lbs.  My health is declining.  I've had severe heart palpitations for nearly the past week.  I had to go to the ER a couple nights ago because of severe pain that they couldn't figure out what the cause of it was.  I spend many days having crying spells.  So how do I count it all as joy?  How do we count our suffering as joy?

You look at the lives of the saints, and many of them went through intense suffering, even tortured and killed for Christ.  You look at the life of St Paul and he went through severe suffering.  When he wrote the book of Philippians, he was in a filthy prison.  Yet he wrote:

Always be full of joy in the Lord, I say it again - rejoice!  Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.  Remember, the Lord is coming soon.  Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.  Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

My dear brother or sister, I don't know what you may be going through who's reading this.  I would never undermine whatever suffering you may be going through.  Yet, through suffering, we learn, we grow, and we become strengthened.  We can get through this!  With bleeding hearts and broken spirits, let's lift them up to the One who can repair them!  The enemy seeks to destroy us, but Christ came to give us life (John 10:10).  You want to really annoy the enemy who's trying to destroy you?  Count your suffering as joy.  Give praises to the Lord and Thanksgiving.  You don't have to ignore the suffering, no, that would be no good either.  Ignoring it as if it doesn't exist will further agitate it and let it build. Yet, focusing and wallowing in it will cause it to build as well.  So acknowledge it's there, but fix your eyes on Jesus.  I'm preaching to myself too.  It's much easier said than done, believe me, I know.

Today, right now, let's fix our eyes on Jesus, pray about things, and be thankful to Him.