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Don’t run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them; if you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure. And true patience brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line—mature, complete, and wanting nothing.
James 1:2-4 (Voice)

Tests and hardships.

No one is immune from them. You walk this earth long enough, and you will come up against a situation that literally takes your breath away, making you question if your faith is strong enough to get through.

The apostle James tells us not to run from it.

What about the young family whose daddy is fighting a recurrence of cancer. Or to the couple dealing with bankruptcy. What about the spouse caring for their beloved, who is battling dementia. Or to the widow, suddenly alone after almost 50 years of marriage.

Life isn’t easy. It’s not perfect. Bad things happen.

Every family deals with less-than-ideal circumstances at times.

By doing the opposite of running away–embracing–whatever situation or circumstance we find ourselves in, James tells us we will ultimately find joy in it.

How do you ultimately (eventually, over the course of time ) find joy in a cancer diagnosis?

In the death of a loved one?

In the midst of financial difficulties?

There’s only one way–by giving it to God.

Lock, stock, and barrel. Nothing held back.

Empty yourself of “self,” open your tight fists with the problem or hardship you have a death grip on, and release it into God’s hands.

Palms open, uplifted to Him, so He can see you’re not withholding any piece of it.

It won’t be easy. And it’s often not too pretty.

There will be times you may think you are slogging through quicksand; you simply cannot go one more step. You’ll pray for the test to just be over, the circumstance to be reconciled, the hardship to be fixed. But it is in that very moment when the pressure is at its greatest, that you will blossom. Your faith, deepen.

I like to think of joy as the fruit of a close relationship with God. It doesn’t necessarily equate to instant happiness. Joy doesn’t fix everything, wrap it up in a neat, tidy bow, at least on this side of heaven. But it is the underlying current in a Christian’s life. We know Who wins in the end.

Joy will cause your faith to blossom, and your patience to be taken to new levels of endurance.

And in the midst of the pressure, the chaos, the swirling of the hardship–the undercurrent of joy can carry you.

Life is a journey, with the ultimate destination on the other side. How you handle the tough stuff on this side is up to you.

James exhorts us to endure, to choose joy in bad times, in order to complete the journey with maturity, lacking nothing.

God gives us free will, and the ability to choose.

As for me and my family, we choose joy. In every circumstance. How about you?

Dear heavenly Father, we come to You seeking joy. Joy in every circumstance, in every situation, life deals us. Life is hard. But You are greater. You win in the end. Keep reminding us of that, as we sometimes struggle to find joy, even in the difficult parts of life. In Your blessed Son’s name, we ask it all, Amen.