Pure Joy

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds (James 1:2)

What are your exact thoughts as you read this verse?

Mine include disbelief and despair; disbelief that this kind of attitude is possible, and despair that I fall so short of the standard. I desire to face my trials with an attitude of pure joy, but mostly I’m just trying to “get through.”

This verse cuts through our self-deceptions and exposes the gaps in our faith. It brings us to confession: “Lord, forgive me for seeking my own way out of trials – for trying to close the gaps by myself; I always fall short. Show me how you desire to close the gaps in my faith and life.”

3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

My wife and I spend a lot of time teaching our daughter to persevere. She doesn’t like it, but she is learning to grasp the freedom that perseverance brings. When we cut short the lessons, she misses opportunities to grow in maturity and completeness. The gap remains.

God loves you and me so much more than we love our own children. His fatherly desire is to move us into maturity and wholeness, so that we do not lack any good thing. He leads us through trials because he wants to give us more of himself, not less.

God is a giver. He demonstrated that in sending Jesus the Christ to be our righteousness – to forever close the gap of eternity of between us and the Father. We face our trials with fear and despair because our fundamental perception of God is flawed. We view trials as God’s way of punishing us because he’s angry with us, but James faced trials with joy because he saw them as God-given opportunities to make us more complete in God’s love and grace - to make us whole.

As we move through our trials, we preach to ourselves, and the God of love moves us deeper into pure joy: “Lord, my perception of you is as a taker, not a giver. I have heard of your great love for me, but in practice I take my trials as signs of your displeasure with me – not as signs of your desire to give me more of yourself and to make me whole. Teach me to receive your work in my life with joy. Teach me to receive you as a good father. Drive out the fear in my life with your perfect love.”

In the Father’s love,

Jonathan

Native Speaker

Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language? If yes, then you know that the most difficult part is learning to think like a native speaker.

When it comes to the grace of Jesus, we are all non-native speakers.

Jesus is the native speaker of grace. If we are to become like him, we must learn to think and to speak in his native language. Half-hearted attempts to “study on the weekends” will never turn us into native speakers of grace – it will only make us conversational. We need total immersion.

Jesus invites us to join him in community to experience total immersion in his grace. Through faith in Jesus, we enter into the only true community of native speakers of grace: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we enter into his church – among fellow learners and supporters in the study of Jesus’ native language of grace.

Jesus uses every opportunity to teach us his native language. Like learning an earthly language, trials, mistakes and difficulties become great teaching moments and move us into greater understanding and fluency. In 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, we see Jesus leading Paul through a trial and a teaching opportunity. Let’s let Jesus use it to teach us as well.

8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (New Living Translation)

8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.

Paul was an experienced learner. When he struggled, he approached his master for help. How long do you struggle along before you come to Jesus for help? Like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, Paul approached Jesus three times, pleading for him to remove his trial.

9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Jesus told Paul the same thing 3 times in a row before Paul got the message. I’m sure Paul kept hoping for a different response, but the important thing is that Paul listened to Jesus. Sometimes we get so focused on escaping our troubles that we close our ears to Jesus. We miss his instruction to us because we are waiting for a “better answer.”

Jesus’ answer is this: “My grace is all you need.” In your current trial or difficulty, do you believe in your heart that the grace of Jesus is “all you need”? Jesus says that it is. Paul believed that it was and it completely transformed his way of thinking and living; he became fluent in the thinking and speaking of grace because he believed what Jesus told him. Let us repent of our unbelief and receive the “bread of grace” for each day. It is sweeter than honey, wine or the kisses of a lover.

Jesus also gave Paul the conditions of grace: “My power works best in weakness.” Paul says that he learned to delight in his weaknesses and hardships, because Jesus had taught him that these were the ideal conditions for Jesus’ power and grace to perfect him and to showcase Jesus’ glory.

Have you been impacted by Jesus through this message? Preach the truth to yourself.

I preach this to myself like this: “Jesus, I have been living as if your grace were an appetizer or even dessert – but thank you for teaching me that it is the main course. Forgive me for not listening to you and for hoping for a “better answer” of my own choosing. Your grace is all I need today. Help me to become fluent in thinking and speaking your native language of grace. Thank you for this difficulty I am in, because you are using it to instruct me in a better way to live – a way of freedom and joy dependent on you and not on my circumstances. Amen.”