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Trials Worth Joy

December 28, 2014

Passage: James 1 Speaker: Nic Higgins Series: Standalone Messages

Length: 57 mins 46 secs Plays: 2360

Speaker: Nic Higgins - When we talk about trials and hardships in life, we generally accompany our responses with frowns, teary eyes, and shaking heads. We express our emotion with sorrow, anger, doubt, and uncertainty. And we support one another by saying, “Be strong!” “This will be over soon.” “You can make it through this to the other side.” We know that trials are hard, dark times in our lives, but are we responding the way the Bible instructs? The Bible actually declares a shocking command for us in James chapter one. It says that we must respond to trials with JOY! Now this is entirely contrary to our nature, and seems to dismiss our genuine emotions of sadness, grief, and confusion. Is Scripture asking us to put on a smile in the face of the hardest moments of our lives, or is there more to the command? Perhaps God is doing more in our trials than we see, and if we understood how God is using trials in our lives we could be joyful even in the midst of our greatest pains. Let’s look together this morning at James 1 and discover why trials are worth joy!