Tag Archives: count it all joy

September 29, 2025 · 5:32 AM

Next Level Growth

I’ve the last couple of weeks I’ve heard different people say that God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers. Another phrase I’ve heard quite a bit is that God will never give you more than you can bear. At first they sound great, but the more I think about them, neither are biblical. God does give battles to people to prove their strength. He allows us to go through tough times to create endurance and to build strength. Also, if He only gave us what we could handle, there would be no need for dependence on Him. He knows what is ahead and what preparations we need now for it. Tough times increase our strength, endurance, character, faith and more. That’s why James says we should count it all joy.

In Genesis we read the story of Joseph. He was a teenager when God gave him a dream of the future. He was not one of God’s toughest soldiers when his brothers threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery. He wasn’t the strongest when he was wrongfully accused and thrown into prison. Being forgotten there for years might have been more than he could bear. What we do know is that God used that period of time as a training ground to produce the person he needed to be in order to handle the mantle of leadership. He went from spoiled brat to understanding God’s plan in that period. He learned his lesson and grew so much that he didn’t seek revenge on his brothers. Instead He saw God’s providence.

Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that you must not depend on bread alone to sustain you, but on everything that the Lord says” (GNT). God’s desire for us is that we would learn to trust Him instead of ourselves in every situation. He is our source and our sustainer. It is His strength that is perfect in our weakness. It is His grace that is sufficient for what we are going through. If you’re going through a hard time, it’s not because you’re His toughest soldier. It’s because there is more that He’s leading you to, more that He’s going to accomplish through you and another level for you to get to. Trust in His strength and not yours for that next level growth.

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Responding To Adversity

When I lived in Egypt, one of my favorite things to do was to rent a sailboat and it’s captain to cruise up and down the Nile. These captains were very skilled. They would use the wind to take us up or down the river for the first part of the journey. They would then use that same wind and crisscross back and forth to return us back to port. Ion,y had one captain who wasn’t good at it. The wind pushed us up into the reeds where we got stuck. He couldn’t get us out and we started getting eaten up by mosquitoes. We were finally able to flag down another boat who pulled us out. Each captain learned to use the wind to their advantage. They could let it push them down the river and then take them back up it. For some, the wind put them in a bad position because they didn’t know how to navigate it or respond to it. There’s the same correlation to us with difficult times.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us that it rains on the just and the unjust alike. He later said that in this world we would have trouble. Different people throughout the Bible responded differently. In Exodus when the Israelites were trapped against the Red Sea with pharaohs army chasing them, fear took over. When Job lost everything, he fell down and worshipped. When David’s son staged a coup, he didn’t take it out on people. When Paul and Silas were bound in chains in prison, they sang praises. When Naomi lost her husband and sons, she wanted to be called “Bitter.” When the three Hebrew boys wouldn’t bow, they trusted God as they were taken to a fiery furnace. What made the difference was how the responded to adversity. Some ended up crashing in the reeds, while others persevered.

James 1:2-3 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow” (NLT). Adversity will come to all of us. James said to respond to it with joy. He understood that joy isn’t based on our circumstances, but on the outcome because of who we trust in. God causes all things to work together for our good. Hard times can stretch us, grow us and increase our faith if we let them. It’s when we lose our trust that they begin to crush us. We’ve just read the differences of people in the Bible. The level of their faith and trust in God determined their reaction. How do you respond when adversity comes? Do you use it for your advantage to navigate upstream or let it push you into the reeds of doubt?

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April 4, 2023 · 5:52 AM

Don’t Run

My son once asked me, “If you had been with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, what would you have done?” I know what he was after and what he was thinking, so I answered, “I would have ran like the rest of them.” He replied, “I would have stayed.” I then explained that it was a nice sentiment, but he would have ran too. I told him that you can’t take today’s knowledge and apply it to what you would have done yesterday. However, I also explained that he can take today’s knowledge and pre-apply it to what he will do tomorrow. There will be plenty of times in his life, and ours, where things look bad, and the opposite of what we hoped would happen will come true. There will be times where we’re tempted to blame God and deny Him, but if we decide now how we will handle it, we improve our chances of staying with Him.

Job is a tough book to read. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to lose everything in a day, including your children. It’s hard to imagine how we might respond when insult is added to injury when we then become too sick to do anything about it. I love that this book pulls back the curtains of what is often happening. Job 1:10-11 has Satan going to God against Job saying, “You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!” (NLT) Satan accuses us by saying we will run from God when bad things happen, but God knows that like Job, if you will predetermine how you will respond, you can endure anything and still worship Him.

Ephesians 6:13 says, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” (ESV). We know that troubles don’t come from God, but He allows them and uses them to test us and grow us. Job had to endure a long time with no response from God as to why everything happened. God grew his endurance and his faith in the end because he didn’t run when bad things happened. He stood firm. We must remain in Him and stand firm during the most difficult times. He is our protection, our source of strength and our hope when all is else is lost. The more difficult your situation is, the more your endurance has the ability to grow. Don’t allow today’s circumstances cause you to run. God had a plan and was working things out behind the scenes for Jesus, the disciples and Job. He’s doing the same for you even though you can’t see it. Don’t run.

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Choose Joy

I’ve been a sales trainer for a few years, and one thing has been consistent. When some people show up for training, they’re not happy. They want to know if class is really going to take the full time. By the end of class though, many of them change their attitudes. They’ll walk out and say, “Thanks. I didn’t think I needed this, but I learned something.” Our attitude towards training is much like our attitude towards troubles in life. We don’t want them or see a need for them. However, when we’ve made it through them, we find ourselves stronger.

I think James was trying to make that same correlation for us in James 1:2-3. He wrote, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow” (NLT). Joy is usually the last emotion that I pair with troubles and trials, but James says they’re an opportunity for us to have it.

I’ve said before that joy is not dependent on your circumstances, happiness is. Joy comes from deep within. It looks at your big picture, while happiness looks at the little one. Joy is something you choose to have no matter what. Each of us choose our attitude in our circumstances. If we don’t, our circumstances will choose our attitude for us. In most cases, it chooses the wrong attitude. Choosing Joy gives you the strength to endure whatever comes your way.

The second part of that verse is where we get our Joy from. We don’t look at the current trouble, but the end result. What do trials produce in us? Endurance. Verse 4 says, “So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” If you can train yourself to keep the end in mind, you will learn to handle troubles a lot better. Don’t waste your times of trouble. Use them for what they’re for: growth and endurance. By choosing the wrong attitude, you prolong your time in them, and miss what God has for you. Keep the end in mind, and choose Joy.

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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September 23, 2021 · 5:30 AM

Developing Life Flavors

One of the things I enjoy doing is cooking. One of the things I’ve learned is that foods taste better if you take the time to develop the flavors. That means that instead of adding onion and garlic later, I may start with them and let them sauté a bit in order to bring out more flavor. When I create a sauce to cook in, I may let it simmer a little longer so that it reduces. Doing that will intensify the flavor. To turn a recipe into a beloved dish, you have to take the time to develop and bring out the hidden flavors with heat and time. It’s more than simply adding ingredients.

I believe our lives are the same way. God wants to create amazing flavors in our lives that point others to Him. To do that, it requires Him to do things differently than our recipe. It also requires us to be put in the fire, sometimes longer than we care to be there. It’s really our choice how we respond. Do we give Him the freedom to bring out the flavors that are locked inside of us? Or do we allow those times to produce a bitter flavor that turns people away from us and Him? God’s desire is that each one of us would have complex, well developed flavors so that we’re not just another Christian.

James 1 tells us to consider it joy, even a gift, when trials and challenges come at us from all sides. In that pressure cooker, it releases hidden flavors into the world. In verse 4 he writes, “So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way” (MSG). When things aren’t going right and life is coming at you hard, don’t run away. God is at work in you and pulling out flavors that were locked away and hidden before. He’s not going to allow these problems to overwhelm you. He knows what you can take and how long you can stay there. Trust His judgement and let Him do His Work in your life.

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Stronger Faith

When life gets tough, do you let it push you closer to God or farther away from Him? I’ve had it do both. There have been times in my life where I desperately wanted God to show up and answer prayers, and to me it felt like He remained silent. I became upset with Him and decided I wasn’t going to ask Him for anything again. Another time, I was far away from Him, and when things got bad, I turned to Him to survive. My faith became the foundation on which I rebuilt my life. In both incidents, events in my life were more than I could handle.

Each of us go through difficulties. Each of go through times where our faith is all we have left. How do you respond in those moments? Do you tell God you’ll never ask Him for anything again because He didn’t answer? Do you have faith God will see you through when there’s no visible path forward? Faith is all about trusting God in life’s most difficult moments. It’s easy to have faith when you don’t have to use it. But what about those moments when it’s all you have left?

James 1:12 gives us a promise from God that says, “If your faith remains strong, even while surrounded by life’s difficulties, you will continue to experience the untold blessings of God!” (TPT) When we hold onto our faith in those periods where it’s all we have left, we experience a depth of God’s grace we’ve never known existed. We also get to know a God more intimately because our relationship deepens in those times. When God is all you have left, your faith has the ability to grow. These times are not designed to crush you or push you away from God. Rather let them do the work of deepening your faith and relationship with God.

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