When the going gets tough

We are spending some time in the endWord having spiritual heart surgery from the letter of James.

Here is a reminder of Dr James’ diagnosis of us: ‘You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God’ (James 4:4).

James looks around our lives, at the everyday things, the ignored, entrenched attitudes and habits, and shows that it is these that reveal our spiritual adultery, our divided heart. Then he applies the scalpel...

So, let’s have a look at

Respectable Sin #1
Doubt and Fretting (My wrong attitude towards God in the trials of life)

Firstly, in chapter 1:2-17, James looks at how we react to the trials of life. This test may show up my proud, adulterous attitude toward God.

‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’

In life we all face hardship, unexpected events that floor us. Relationships fail, loved ones die, we get ill, we face financial problems; life just isn’t turning out as we’d dreamt and we think: ‘It wasn’t supposed to be like this!’

The shock is James says: ‘Consider it pure joy … whenever you face trials of many kinds’! Now he surely can’t be asking us to have a cheesy perma-grin on our face. We can’t pretend to enjoy suffering.

No – he is asking us to be joyful because we understand God’s purpose behind the trial, which is to produce in us perseverence which is making us mature and complete, like Christ Jesus. That’s God will for us – not to give us a cushty, problem-free life but to transform us into the likeness of His precious Son.

The question James asks is: How will you deal with the trials?

‘If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.’

So, in the midst of the trial, will you turn to the Lord, and ask for His wisdom, to trust Him through it. To trust that He knows what He is doing, even when you can’t see it or understand it. Because look at that amazing promise – God will give wisdom in a generous measure to you.

Except – maybe you will ask for wisdom, and then continue to doubt God’s goodness, thinking in some perverse way that He is wrong to allow you to suffer like this? Well, listen to this rebuke in verses 6-8:

‘But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.’

When things are tough, it is a real test of our faith, of how much we truly trust God’s character.

However, James says that, if we doubt God’s good intentions for us in the storm of trials, we are being double-minded and unstable. I think part of the problem is that we resent trials. We certainly don’t consider them pure joy.

No – we live in a blame culture, don’t we, and if we aren’t careful it seeps into us Christians like rising damp. Secretly, we want to sue God – we want compensation for losing out on our happiness. We want to blame Him and everyone else for not making us happy – ‘Bad parents!’, ‘Bad partner!’, ‘Bad kids!’, ‘Bad God!’. We set the bar very high in our expectations of other people’s behaviour towards us.

So, when we are let down or things go wrong, we fret, we get anxious and fearful, angry or depressed and withdrawn. Add to this the fact that we also live in an entitlement culture that tells me happiness is a ‘human right’ – I deserve to be happy. Therefore, we are told, my purpose in life is to make me happy.

And if as Christians we fall for this particular lie, we will think we can do whatever we need to relieve our pain and bring us happiness. And then we set the bar very low for our own behaviour, even if we disobey God and hurt others in our pursuit of our happiness. And the manifest brokenness and chaos in our homes and churches is testimony to this.

So – here is our challenge: Am I being double minded and worldly in my attitude towards God amid my trials? Or am I joyfully trusting God’s good purpose behind them? Is my focus to become wise and mature like the Lord Jesus? Or is it to be temporarily happy whatever the cost?

Psalm 86:11-13 says: ‘Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth: give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, of the grave.’

Lizzy Smallwood is a pastor’s wife, mum, part-time school teacher, and Bible teacher at women’s events at home and abroad.