July 10
Count It
Pure Joy
James 1:2-4
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.
Daily Steps
The greatest challenge to the new believer’s peace is the inevitable reality of trials and suffering. This verse provides the radical, counter-intuitive command for finding peace in the pain: Consider it pure joy when facing trials.
The peace in this process is found in guaranteed character development:
The Counter-Intuitive Command: The instruction is not to feel joy, but to "consider it pure joy"—a deliberate, rational decision to adopt a positive perspective. This attitude acknowledges that the pain has a divine purpose (The Lord Reigns, Day 189).
The Purposeful Process: The trials are the "testing of your faith." This test is not to see if your faith will break, but to refine it, producing perseverance (patience or endurance). This perseverance, when allowed to finish its work, leads to spiritual maturity: you become mature and complete, not lacking anything.
The Result is Peace: When you view a trial as a temporary tool for producing permanent spiritual character, the trial loses its power to disrupt your core peace. You recognize that God is more focused on making you complete than making you comfortable.
Your peace in suffering is secured by spiritual perspective. Choose to consider it pure joy, trusting that your trials are guaranteed to produce the mature character that brings unshakable peace.
Reflective Question
What trial are you facing right now that is stealing your peace? How can you make the active decision today to consider it pure joy, by choosing to focus on the promised end result: becoming mature and complete?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I confess my difficulty in facing pain and my instinct to complain about trials. I pray for the spiritual maturity to consider it pure joy when tests arise.
Help me to endure with perseverance, knowing that You are faithfully working to make me mature and complete.
Secure my peace today in the certain knowledge of Your purposeful work. Amen.
