Count It All Joy When Trouble Comes

Some of you are in something right now that you would not have chosen, and you have quietly started wondering whether God is angry with you. I want to take that off you this morning.

What does James actually tell us to do with trouble?

Count it as an opportunity.

Turn to James 1:2–4. "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy."

Come on and say it: count it all joy. I am going to count it all joy.

Now hear me carefully, because this is where people misread it. He is not telling you to enjoy the trouble. He is telling you to count it — to add up what it is producing. Those are different instructions entirely.

Why would trouble ever be joy?

Because of the next line, which explains the whole thing.

"For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow."

Your endurance. God is testing you, and the question He is settling is whether you have enough to get to where He wants to take you.

So He says, I have got to build you up to get you from there, to here, to there. I have got to build up your muscle. That is not a God who is against you. That is a God who has looked at the weight of what He intends to hand you and decided you are not carrying it yet.

Does struggling mean I missed God?

No. And I want to be plain, because that lie keeps people quiet.

Think about all the stuff you did before He called you. He waited until He got you to the point where you would say yes to Him. And even after you said yes, you still struggle with Him.

That struggle is not proof that you are outside His will. Most of the time it is proof that something is being built that was not there before.

So when you are in it this week — and some of you are in it right now — do not ask first whether you did something wrong. Ask what is being built. Then count it. That is the joy.