Joy in Trials?

One wonder of salvation is that God loves us. John 3:16 says it concisely and states the proof of it besides. However, as today’s reading says, many of God’s children miss the extent of that love and fall prey to the testimony of their own doubting hearts. How could God care for me? Or how could God forgive me? Or why am I not sure of being loved?

A doubting heart is the result of listening to circumstances as well as defining love in human terms. For many, love is about feeling good. It is also based on the performance of others. When they do what is pleasing, love is easy, but if their actions are not comfortable, love does not come as easily — and the reverse is assumed.

Relationships enter the mix too. I might more easily love my children, warts and all, than I would love a neighbor who is nice one day and nasty the next. When God seems like He isn’t interested in my comfort, then I wonder if He loves me — that is, it I base my interpretations on human thinking. Note, this kind of thinking is subjective and based on my ‘I wants’ — meaning it is essentially selfish and sinful.

The love of God is not about making me comfortable, but it took awhile to learn that. My parent’s love was about meeting my needs, but also doing what made me happy. God wants me to be joyful, but His version is from the Holy Spirit and does not depend on comfortable circumstances.

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. (James 1:2–4)

How is this even possible? Learning this takes years and some never learn it. Grumpy Christians? Yes, because growing in love is about faith, and faith is about hearing the Word of God, and if I stop hearing (not the same as merely listening), then I stop growing in faith and growing in love, the kind of love that Jesus has.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. (2 Thessalonians 1:3)

So, what happens to change from being uncertain that God loves me to being so sure of it that I can be joyful in trials and love even my enemies? The answer is a bit of a surprise. A seminary professor told the class that if we could get Christians to speak what they know, that truth would become a greater part of their way of life. The NT puts it this way:

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

Verbal testimony of known truth, including an attitude of love in speaking it, is God’s way of locking that truth and that attitude into hearts and lives. Being silent does not build faith, nor does acting in unloving ways build love — including the awareness that God loves me. Faith is solidified by saying what I believe.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 10:10–11)

To put this in broader terms, sin will spoil faith and increase doubt, even doubt that God loves me. Not that He has stopped, but I have stopped thinking that He loves me. This begins a downward spiral into sorrow.

PRAY: Jesus, this is so helpful. The verses from James speak to me also about my attitude in this ‘trial of a various kind’ — the trial of moving and a million boxes. My brother moved when younger than I am now and said never to move when you are eighty. We laughed and are doing it anyway. But realizing that Your joy is possible no matter what, even if this is a lot harder to experience in total exhaustion. Remembering that You love us and are with us means a great deal. We see the evidence in many ways, including how You give us joy in this or any circumstance.