TRIAL BY FIRE

Introduction

-{James 1}

-One of the ways that I learned to share the gospel (and in turn taught others) is a method called the three circles. It obviously uses three circles to tell the gospel story, but the first circle that you use demonstrates the fact that WE LIVE IN A BROKEN WORLD. While that might not be news to us theologically, even we Christians sometimes forget just how broken this world is. And then when that brokenness seeps into our own lives, it’s like we’re shocked and it upends us. We think that the brokenness happens to other people, but it doesn’t happen to us (or shouldn’t happen to us). But here’s the thing, WE are living in a broken world, meaning we are part of the brokenness and we are affected by the brokenness. And right now, every single one of us is affected by that brokenness. We all are affected in different ways. For some it touches our bodies, for others it touches our souls. For some the brokenness is very open and public, for others we suffer through the brokenness in silence.

-The Bible uses the term TRIALS to describe what it is we go through in the brokenness. Sometimes the trials come from our brokenness within, sometimes the trials come from other people’s brokenness, and sometimes there is brokenness because creation is cursed, like the hurricane in Florida. Because the world is broken, we go through trials. But for the Christian, just as our souls have been redeemed by Christ’s death, so too our trials have a redeeming factor. God uses the trials in spite of the brokenness. You might consider them a trial by fire.

-A trial by fire is putting something under pressure and through the fire to test for genuineness, as well as to purify. Think of a refiners fire that tests to see if a chunk of rock has precious metal in it as well as get rid of all the impurities (the dross) so that it is of more value than it was before the fire. For very similar reasons we are thrust into trials by fire.

-James, the brother of Jesus and apostle of Jerusalem wrote an epistle where he encouraged Christians to view the trials of life as opportunities for God to develop them. For the Christian, trials are not meant to destroy or discourage, rather they happen so that we would learn and grow. And so I want us to look at our trials in the brokenness as just that—God allows them for our good and growth. I want us to have a biblical, healthy view of our trials. So, let’s dive deeper into that.

James 1:1–8 ESV

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

-{pray}

-James begins his letter with something that our human nature immediately rails against. We hear what he says and we automatically become defensive. He says COUNT IT ALL JOY WHEN YOU MEET TRIALS! You read that and you cringe. You just want to find James and punch him in the face for saying something that seems to ridiculous or cruel. But you need to restrain yourself so you can hear him out. Because where he is going with this is that the trials have a value.

-For the unbeliever, the value is that it should drive you to faith in Christ. The trial forces you to see the brokenness, and then seek out the answer in a Savior. But James really hones in on the value for the Christian as well as what you can do during the trial to get through it. Yes, it should drive you to the Savior you love, and there is further explanation. So, let’s consider some principles we find in James that we need to know about these trials.

1) God uses trials for our development (vv. 2-4)

-Yes, trials are a natural consequence of the brokenness. Yes, God is good and He is sovereign. Why would a sovereign, good God allow trials? Or, as it is most often put, why would God allow evil (or, what seems evil in our sight)? James doesn’t give all the possible answers, but he at least gives an answer. And under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James says that God uses the trials to develop us. It doesn’t mean that God is the cause of the trials (although He might), but at minimum He allows them so that we would learn and grow. And there are some characteristics about this fact that he touches on.

a) Our trials are diverse

-In v. 2 James mentions that the trials are of various kinds. Just as each individual is unique, so are the trials that they face. God made each of us with a specific purpose in mind for our part in the story of redemption. But since we each have our own part and path, and we are each given a unique personality and disposition, the trials that happen to us are allowed to fit those variables. Yes, there are many common elements to the trials that we share, but they are not all of the same intensity. And so our trials come in many shapes and sizes.

-Some of our trials might be to our physical person. Some of our trials might be persecution which was a reality for the believers to whom James wrote and it is becoming more of a reality for us day by day. Some of the trials might be the disasters from a fallen world and the trials that come by enduring through crisis. Still yet, some of our trials are of a spiritual nature in that we battle a particular temptation or besetting sin. God can use any or all these things to further develop us to where He wants us to be in our life. And we gain further understanding...

b) Our trials are deliberate

-As the cliche goes, there is method to the madness. There are legitimate reasons for trials, bringing about something in our lives that no other method might be able to achieve. We might understand better when we look at some of the words that are used. The Greek word translated TRIAL literally means that it is an attempt to learn the nature or character of something. And then in v. 3 it talks about the testing of faith—the word for TESTING means to test the genuineness of something so see if it is authentic.

-The trials in our lives are deliberate in that they have a twofold purpose: they test to see if we have genuine faith in Christ, and they also attempt to determine what that faith is really made of. In one sense the trials are there to expose the truth. The trials aren’t there to expose your faith to God. He already knows you. God already knows what you are made of. The trials are there to expose you to yourself so you can see what you are really made of—you can see what your faith really amounts to. For some who might have some spiritual pride, it might be used to show you’re not all that. For others who think their faith is small, it might be used to expose that your faith is stronger than you thought. The trials are deliberate to expose you to you.

-Think of Abraham and the trial of sacrificing his own son. Abraham was distraught because he didn’t know what he would do, but God knew what he was going to do. Abraham through the trial learned that he had a complete faith and trust in God to fulfill His promises even if it didn’t make sense. The book of Hebrews reveals for us that Abraham came to the conclusion that God would raise Isaac from the dead. The trial exposed a faith that even Abraham might not have known existed. So, the trials are deliberate in that they are a test so we can see what really exists within us. But there is also the more developmental purpose that I have been talking about...

c) Our trials have a destination

-These trials that are testing us and exposing us are moving toward a destination—they have a goal in mind. First, according to v. 3 it produces steadfastness (ESV). Trials develop us so that we persevere in the faith and not fall away. The trials are there to build up a spiritual endurance within us so that down the road when more trials come along, or we become engaged in bigger spiritual battles, we are even stronger so we can endure through them as well. If we had not endured through the earlier trial we might not be strong enough to endure through the later trial. Through the trial God builds our endurance for even greater things.

-If you are going to run a marathon you don’t just wake up one day and decide to run a marathon. If you are going to run a marathon you need to be prepared years in advance. You do things and go through things to develop the stamina and endurance to succeed. Our trials are our preparation.

-But even steadfastness is working toward something. It says in v. 4 that steadfastness has a full effect when you become perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. The word PERFECT talks about attaining your purpose—the goal God has for you. Perfect and complete speaks of a wholeness where you are made into the person God intended to fulfill the plans that God intended. God has some plans for you that you would not be ready for without the trials. So, it’s interesting: trials are both the test to see what our faith is made of, but then trials are also the tools that are used to make our faith stronger.

-These concepts are found throughout the New Testament, and several different writers bear witness to this fact.

-Paul wrote:

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

-Here again—count your sufferings as joy because they produce endurance which produces within you godly character so your hope in Christ grows stronger. And then there is also Peter:

1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

-Here again, your trials refine your faith so that your life is led in such a way as to result in the praise and honor and glory of Christ. Your having a refined faith, building endurance, fulfilling God’s plan to His glory, would not be possible had you not been tried and tested through the trials.

There’s a story about a man who found a cocoon of the emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point.

Deciding something was wrong, the man took scissors and snipped the remaining bit of cocoon. The moth emerged easily, its body large and swollen, the wings small and shriveled.

He expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty, but they did not. Instead of developing into a creature free to fly, the moth spent its life dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings.

You see, the constricting cocoon and the struggle that is necessary to pass through the tiny opening are God’s way of forcing fluid from the body into the wings. The “merciful” snip that the guy gave was, in reality, cruel, because without the struggle the moth could not become what he was created to be.

-And so it is with us. But that does not mean we just kind of blindly follow along wherever the currents of our trials take us. God does offer guidance for the trials:

2) God grants wisdom to navigate the trials (vv. 5-8)

-God wants to equip us for the times of trial, and He does so by giving us godly wisdom to navigate through this storm in life. What does James tell us about this wisdom?

a) Wisdom deprived

-V. 5 in the ESV begins by saying IF ANY OF YOU LACK WISDOM, but in the original language it’s actually written in such a way that assumes that the reader does lack that wisdom. We don’t have any inherent wisdom within us, nor do we have any natural talents within us, that equip us to navigate through the trial. It’s assumed that when we go into the trial we don’t know what’s going on and we don’t know what to do about it.

-Some people, when they get to a trial, think they can just grit their teeth and plow through it, and usually come out all the worse for wear because they try to handle the trial in their own strength and own logic. But the point is that we don’t know God’s thoughts and we don’t know God’s ways and we don’t know what God is doing in and through this trial. So, relying on ourselves is the exact opposite of wisdom and logic.

-What the trial ought to do is to drive us to the throne room of God to seek out His wisdom and strength. Remember, part of the development given through trials is to test and refine our faith. Do we trust God or not? Will we turn to God or not? We personally lack the wisdom to get through the storm that we are going through. No matter how good enough or smart enough we think we are, we aren’t and our trial ought to drive us to God to seek the wisdom to navigate what it is we are going through.

b) Wisdom dispensed

-So, since we naturally lack the wisdom to navigate the trial, James tells us to ask God. Go to God in prayer and ask for the wisdom of how to navigate the trial. Ask God what actions, words, and attitudes you should take on. Ask God what direction He would have you go and what choice He would have you make. Ask Him what result would glorify Him the most.

-But quite often we don’t ask for wisdom in those areas. Usually, when we are in a trial, we focus in on one area: WHY? Why me? Why is this happening? Very rarely if at all does God ever answer the why question. I mean, God never answered the why question for Job, and He never told Abraham why He did the whole sacrifice Isaac thing, so you won’t get an answer to the why, so stop obsessing over the why. Instead, you ask God the what and the how and the when. What do you want me to do? How do you want me to do it? When do you want me to do it?

-And the neat thing is that God will answer you. It says right here that wisdom will be given to the one who asks. And the reason we know that is based on the character of God. It says that God gives wisdom generously. In one sense it talks about God’s willingness, and in another sense it means to simply be given without any ulterior motives. God is willing to give and He isn’t expecting some sort of bribe or anything. God’s willing to give without wanting anything in return.

-And it says He gives without reproach. God is not going to demean you or fault you for lacking wisdom or for asking for wisdom. God knows you lack the wisdom. You lack wisdom so that you rely on Him. Why would He turn around and insult you because you lack that wisdom. If you ask God for wisdom to navigate the trial, He won’t look down His nose at you and make you feel like an idiot for asking. Have you ever tried to make a substitute on an order at a restaurant and the waiter or waitress or person behind the counter gives you the stink eye, like they’re thinking, “Stop being so high maintenance” or something like that? God doesn’t do that. He delights in you relying on Him and asking. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, and it will be given to him. But there is a warning here...

c) Wisdom doubted

-James warns that when you ask for wisdom for the trial, do not doubt. The doubt that it is warning against is doubting God’s Word and doubting God’s character. In a sense these are one and the same because God’s character is expressed in the Word, and the Word is a reflection of God’s character. When you ask God for wisdom about your trial, don’t think that it is some useless ritual because God isn’t a good God and He won’t answer you anyway.

-It’s interesting, the trial is a test of faith, and if you doubt you are actually demonstrating that the faith you say you have isn’t as strong as you think it is. So, it should cause some reflection and some repentance and some seeking. If you are doubting God, you’re showing that your faith needs to be refined, and maybe the trial you are going through is in place to show that your faith is weak and it is designed to strengthen the parts that are weak—to build the endurance in those areas. But if you constantly doubt, don’t expect God to answer the prayer for wisdom (or any other prayer for that matter). James says that this double-minded, unstable person shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord.

-Imagine you’re at a store, and your kid says to you something to the effect: Well, I want to ask you for this candy bar, but I doubt you’d get it to me because you are just an unloving tyrant who likes to make my life as miserable as possible. Do you know what my response would be? You’re absolutely right you ain’t getting that candy bar, because you insult me and disrespect me with your doubt.

-Is that not what we’re doing when we doubt God? I doubt God will actually do what He says He will in His Word (which can be translated that I find God to be unreliable and He doesn’t fulfill His promises). Why would God answer that? Instead, even when it doesn’t fit your timetable or schedule, you trust God will answer the prayer as He sees fit and when He sees fit.

Conclusion

-There’s a lot going on here, but know this. God uses trials to develop you, and He will give you wisdom to navigate the trial if you ask. Pastor William Secker wrote:

If Joseph had not been Egypt’s prisoner, he would have never been Egypt’s governor. The iron chains about his feet usher in the golden chains around his neck.

-God is allowing the trial for something in your life—not to drive you away from Him, but to force you to come to Him. Today, come to the altar and lay your burden at His feet and seek from Him what it is He wants you to learn from the trials you are facing, and allow Him to be your comfort and strength.

-But if you are not a Christian, God is using your trials to seek Him for healing in the brokenness. The answer to the brokenness question in the three circles is that Jesus Christ came to earth, died, and rose again so that all who repent and trust in Him will be restored and will be brought into life as God originally intended, eternal life....