Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4

Joy is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of Christ. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. James 1:2 (NIV).  To be honest, I’ve rolled my eyes at this verse many times. I’ve quickly skimmed past it looking for a more appealing scripture a little further down the page. How can we possibly be expected to name our trials “joy”?

It’s been difficult for me to consider everything that happens as joy. How can anyone think of joy when you have a flat tire and you’ll be late to work? There is no joy when you are sick, your paycheck doesn’t cover all the bills, someone you love is ill or passes from this life, or even in the mundane things we have to do every day.  It seems counterintuitive to find joy in hard things. But I have some good news for you about the word “consider.” This word is from the Greek verb, hegeomai, meaning to lead, to go before, to rule or command, to have authority over. 

James isn’t suggesting that we simply pull a happy emotion from thin air and decide to go with it. Rather, he is convinced that choosing joy—Jesus—and allowing Him to lead instead of our feelings is the way to endure our troubles. Now, I don’t know about you, but this idea is far easier for me to wrap my mind around! In your deepest, darkest times you will have the opportunity to make a choice for joy before the fears and what-ifs lead you to panic. Choosing joy will go against everything your senses tell you, but allowing joy to lead you is activation of your faith in God and proves you believe Jesus is alive! 

The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln supposedly experienced long bouts of depression. He eventually made this statement: “Most people are as happy as they make up their mind to be.” If you live long enough, you will discover that true happiness does not come from events alone, but rather from a choice.

If you struggle with seeing the joy in your trials, I want to remind you that you’re not alone many of us struggles with this. This is the challenge that God places on us all so that we can remember even in our most challenging times that God is still working things out for our good. The verse above promises us completeness. It promises us that perseverance will leave us not lacking anything, not because of who we are, but because of who God is. Finding joy in our trials is a battle we can lose more often than we’d like to admit. But that’s what’s amazing about God and the promise we read here: God did not call us to be perfect… He called us to be perfected. Let his work perfect you today.

We may not be able to control what happens to us; but we can certainly control our responses. There are times when we need to cry; but at some point, we must dry our eyes and make the choice to go ahead with living. Happiness is a choice. 

The word “happy” derives partly from the word happenstance, indicating that a person’s happiness is at the mercy of what happens to us externally. However, true joy is internal, and comes from a source within.