Count It All Joy

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

James 1:2

Persecution was the most common trial among Jewish believers in James’s time. Today, a trial can be a number of things: the loss of a job, a divorce, trouble with our children, severe financial strain, illness or death in the family, or relational problems over which we seem to have little control. Though our trials may not seem as severe as the persecution of James’s day, note that James does not say “if” we encounter trials, but “when” we encounter trials. And when these trials come, our first strategy, according to James, is to “count it all joy.”

To count, or consider, it all joy in the midst of our trials is to respond with a deliberate, intelligent appraisal of our situation. We must learn to look at our situation from God’s perspective and recognize that, though the trial is not a happy experience in itself, it is God’s way of producing something of great value. The word count means “to think in terms of the future.” James is not saying we are to rejoice over pain, but we are to rejoice because God’s purposes are being accomplished in our lives.