{"id":5587,"date":"2014-09-24T02:48:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T02:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5587"},"modified":"2014-11-04T04:58:38","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T04:58:38","slug":"james-12-4-consider-it-all-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5587","title":{"rendered":"James 1:2-4\u2014Consider it all joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.<\/em> And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.<\/em> James 1:2-4<\/p>\n

Joy. What comes to mind? Birthdays? Weddings? Babies? Promotions? Graduation? Winning the big game? When you first heard \u201cConsider it all joy<\/em>\u201d, I\u2019ll bet you didn’t think of trials, testing, or having to endure.<\/p>\n

Yet James began his letter right off the bat with this attention grabber\u2014\u201cHey, everybody! Get happy\u2014trials are coming your way!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Had he lost his mind? I imagine\u00a0that the original recipients of his letter were struck by the oddness of his greeting. He was writing to believers who had already undergone persecution and the loss of fellow Christians to martyrdom,\u00a0and the sting of trials and demonic harassment was anything but joyful. Fortunately, however, James had a method to his madness, and I\u2019m sure that the\u00a0first group\u00a0to read\u00a0his\u00a0message took a close look\u2014and a very sober one\u2014at what he had to say.<\/p>\n

And in his remarks about joy, trials, and endurance, James left a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak, for his brethren to follow so they could find their way through any<\/em> trial they might encounter.<\/p>\n

Imagine a pencil and paper maze from your childhood. Remember those? They always had one starting point and one end point. James 1:2-4 can be mapped out using the same principle. The starting point is called \u201cMy Trial\u201d and the end point is \u201cPerfect and Complete, Lacking Nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0interesting thing about this \u201ctrial maze\u201d is that it works for the\u00a0full spectrum of tests\u2014from the seemingly insignificant irritations to massive worldwide turmoil.<\/p>\n

If you remember those grade school mazes, you are keenly aware of the fact that within them several <\/em>paths interconnect and wind around in every direction, but only one<\/em> path will take you from start to finish. How many times did you have to start over when you first accepted the maze challenge?<\/p>\n

As a kid, after messing up dozens of mazes by coloring the wrong paths, I started scoping them out first before I actually touched them with pencil, crayon, or marker. When I was satisfied I had correctly deciphered the route, I then colored it in with confidence and rarely botched a one after that.<\/p>\n

James helped his brethren scope out the trials they encountered\u2014from beginning to end\u2014in a similar way. He gave them the secret to making it all the way through the maze effectively, but they needed two keys. The first key was joy, and the second, endurance.<\/p>\n

Key number one. <\/em>The very minute your trial starts, James wrote, start thinking about it as joy. Consider it all<\/em> joy. If you look at something as joy, you don\u2019t grumble, pout, or complain. You don\u2019t scream, cry, or smack people. You smile. You laugh. You rejoice.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for both James\u2019 brethren and all the rest of us, he didn\u2019t leave us dangling with this thought\u2014face your trials with joy<\/em>\u2014with no\u00a0further explanation. Instead, he gave us a second key to use with<\/em> the key of\u00a0joy\u2014endurance\u2014and<\/em> a promise: that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n

Joy is the very attitude that will undergird\u00a0you as you\u00a0apply endurance. Joy lifts you up and empowers you while its opposite\u2014pouting, grumbling, complaining, screaming, crying, or attacking others\u2014brings you low and destroys.<\/p>\n

Joy is the force that enables you to sit back at the onset of an attack and think, \u201cHmm\u2026there\u2019s an end<\/strong> to this trial. Let\u2019s take a look at this maze.<\/em>\u201d Joy empowers you to resist taking all the false <\/em>paths that crisscross your trial\u2014pouting, grumbling, complaining, screaming, crying, or biting off heads. Joy is the force that speaks to your heart, \u201cHey, this may take a while, but there\u2019s a prize <\/strong>at the end!<\/em>\u201d And with joy leading the charge, the second key, endurance, can arrive on the scene, do her thing, and have her perfect work.<\/p>\n

Key number two:<\/em> Endurance is that force which doesn\u2019t need to look at her watch every 30 seconds. Endurance doesn\u2019t check out the other competitors around her to see if they are faster, smarter, or more adept. Endurance is the force that is willing to remain behind the pack, if necessary, in order to see God fulfill His purposes. Endurance doesn\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.<\/em> And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is God’s will to bring about a perfect work<\/em> in your life. But you must first apply two keys whenever <\/em>you encounter a trial: 1.) Consider it all joy, and 2.) Endure to the end. Then<\/em> you will be perfect complete, lacking in nothing.<\/p>\n

Are you ready for the next maze?<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 Joy. What comes to mind? Birthdays? Weddings? Babies? Promotions? Graduation? Winning the big game? When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5587"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5614,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587\/revisions\/5614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}