The Blessing of Trials

So be truly glad. 

There is wonderful joy ahead, 

even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.

1 Peter 1:6 (NLT) 

When troubles come your way,

 consider it an opportunity for great joy.

 James 1:2-3 (NLT)

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials,

 for we know that they help us develop endurance. 

Romans 5:3 (NLT) 

"Count it all joy!"  "Rejoice!" "Be truly glad!" When life is easy and fun and going smoothly, that makes sense.  But to be glad and rejoice when we run into problems and troubles and trials, really? It is paradoxical to think we should be happy and joyful when we are hurting and sorrowful and in painful circumstances. 

Why then would Paul and Peter and James all tell us the same thing?  Did they know something we don't? What they knew and had experienced was that trials work. They had gained the understanding that trouble accomplishes things that living a carefree life could never do.  Going through trouble humbles us and creates something of eternal value in us. Impurities are burned away like gold that has gone through the fire.  All of the unnecessary things in our lives are stripped away, leaving us with things of true value. 

How can we rejoice when we are full of fear and dread, anxiety or pain. Only by faith, by looking away to the one who endured all, by trusting that all difficulties are working in us new and better and higher things.  Believing that God is good and that he will bring good from what ever we go through. Then we can say like Job, "When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold." (Job 23:10)  When he brings us through, we will see his hand.  So rejoice, be glad, be happy when you encounter all kinds of trials for God is working in you to accomplish his great purposes.

Thank you, Lord, for your refining work.  Thank you, Lord, for the humbling that comes when my trials bring me to the end of myself. I rejoice in your work and all the good you are creating in me.

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. 

Yet they produce for us a glory 

that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

2 Cor. 4:17

Click here: Andrae Crouch singing Through It All