Hosanna Restoration Church

(James 1:2 NLT)

Can’t you just imagine the response of the people when this letter was being read? “What in the world is he talking about? How can he say such things? Opportunity for joy in deed.” You can almost see people who had come with great anticipation to hear the latest encouragement from one of the Apostles, waving their hands and preparing to just walk off. After all, isn’t that how we often feel when someone starts talking about silver linings and looking on the bright side? Well now that the crowd has calmed down let’s see what He bases such a comment on.

First of all, he does not say that they should rejoice because there is trouble. That would be crazy. Trouble by its very definition is nothing to get happy about. However seeing it as an opportunity to get happy, now that may be worth looking into. Everyone is always looking for a good opportunity for success, happiness, prosperity, deliverance, and anything beneficial. Or at least we should be. So here we are told that we can view trouble from different perspective. Let’s face it; our normal response to trouble is not joy. But then, God is supernatural, so we do things differently with Him.

In order for us to look at trouble from the joy angle we are going to need some serious help. The first thing for us to realize is that trouble challenges our faith. “Oh really,” you say. These challenges build our endurance, just like lifting weights builds our muscles. Now of course the more we exercise our faith, the more prepared we are for trouble. We may not always be ready to consider it a joyful opportunity, but we should not be knocked out of the race at the first bump in the road.

The next verse goes on to say that when our endurance is fully developed, we become people of strong character and we are ready for anything. Now you must admit that the prospect of being ready for anything does make one feel like smiling at least a little. It is kind like imagining that you are Superman. You know, faster that a speeding bullet, jumping buildings with a single bound, and in general always beating the bad guy.

Well if we look at it that way, maybe we could start seeing trouble as an opportunity for joy. After all, when troubles arise we know we should praise the Lord. Remember, we are not praising for the trouble but for the victory that is ours for the taking. Facing troubles and defeating them is what conquerors do. And we have been made more than conquerors through Christ who strengthens us.

When we know the rest of the plan, I believe we can see why we should consider trouble as a joyful opportunity. The more we defeat it and praise God, the less the enemy is going to want to throw it at us. And even if he does, we are ready for it. We are ready for anything. No weapon formed against us can prosper. Oh yes! We are ready. I don’t want trouble, but I am willing to fight it God’s way. How about you!