How to Deal with Trials

“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 (ESV).

Trials, meaning hardships, ordeals, difficulties, tribulations, adversities, have been said to “break or make” us.  James wrote that Christians should count it “all joy” when trials beset them.  Trials are designed to produce Christian maturity and should therefore be accepted with joy  Trials provide a testing ground for our faith,  and how we handle trials and with what perspective we view them makes us more steadfast.  James mentions in these verses that trials help us to grow into perfection and completeness.  We have a theological term for growing toward perfection; it is called sanctification.  We can aspire toward it in this life, living a life of faithful endurance; but the ultimate in sanctification—growing toward perfection—will occur completely only when Jesus returns.

Most of us would like to avoid trials, run from them, seek a means to evade or ignore them.  How can we face them head-on, and grow through them?  James tells us a way in 1:5:and warns us not to doubt or be double-minded in 1:6-8:  “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.  For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

In retrospect, looking back upon trials we have endured in life, we can see that they did indeed help us grow in steadfastness.  I can recall many times in my life when I felt that I was, as we say, “at the end of my rope.”  One was when I was fourteen and my mother died.  I was faced with two large challenges (I prefer this word to trials).  One was being the mainstay to manage our farm household, even at that tender age.  The other was to stay in school, because I had a strong desire to be educated.  Was the going easy?  Indeed not.  But with daily prayer, dependence on the promises and Word of the Lord, and exceeding determination, I reached these goals.  I like to think I came through those years stronger and more able to meet life.  But what I found as I progressed through life was that, without fail, trials were a part of almost every phase of life I entered.  Just because I had “grown up” did not make the way difficulty-free.  But the One, if we ask Him, who provides wisdom to overcome trials, was always steadfast. I join in the prayer by Rev. Charles Wesley who wrote:  “Father, let our faithful mind rest on Thee inclined; every anxious thought repress; keep our souls in perfect peace.”  -Ethelene Dyer Jones 02.02.2014.