Count It All Joy
Tom Shrader teaches an expository study of James 1:1-4, establishing that the author—widely identified as the half-brother of Jesus—wrote to scattered Jewish believers facing intense persecution and hardship. Shrader focuses on the command to 'count it all joy' when trials come, emphasizing that the Greek word for 'various' pictures trials as multi-colored and personally shaped, and that the word 'when' makes their arrival inevitable rather than optional. He argues that what a believer knows about God's purpose in suffering—that testing produces endurance and maturity—must govern what they feel, and he closes with practical guidance on how to respond faithfully when trials arrive.
“What you know trumps what you feel, because when the trials come you will feel one thing, and if you don't know that this is for your own good and God's glory, you're never going to be able to count it all joy.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Blue Jean Theology (2011)
Recorded: 2011 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 49 min
Themes: trials, suffering, joy, perseverance, endurance, faith, hardship, maturity, going through hard times, struggling with suffering, feeling overwhelmed, new believer, young adult, questioning god, facing persecution, season of loss
Scripture: James 1:1-4, James 1:22, Matthew 1:25, Psalm 17:3, Psalm 26:2, Psalm 139:23, Lamentations 3:40, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Proverbs 3:5-6
Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, soteriology, biblical exposition, spiritual maturity, theodicy, suffering and sovereignty, perseverance of the saints
Full Transcript
Introduction to a Unified Study
Open your Bibles to the book of James. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and we'll bring you one. In the New Testament, it is on page 177. Today we are looking at verses one, two, three, and four.
This is the first time that all three campuses will be studying the same material. It will not necessarily be presented the same way, since there will be different presenters, but we will be covering the same content. The study guide will give you the teaching schedule in terms of what we will cover each week, and we are committed to that now.
Today in Arcadia, today in Tempe, and today here, all of the campuses are studying the same section. This is our desire going forward — that every week, at least for now, all the campuses be in the same passage together. I think that is overall a really good thing.
This is anecdotal, but I had two different stories this week. One involved someone from Praxis, another from East Valley, both working in the same office. They said that things did not really connect between them as brothers and sisters until they became Redemption Church — and already this week, within that office, it has made a difference. There have been more conversations, and they are talking about starting a Bible study. That is exactly what we want.
One of the big desires is that when Monday morning hits, we have five or six thousand people on the same message and the same mission. If you have friends in Scottsdale or mid-Phoenix and you have never known where to send them, go to the Redemption website and you will find the Arcadia campus. This is the very tip of the iceberg of what we hope God will do.
Reading the Text
Let me read James 1:1–4:
*"James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."*
Let me also read the J.B. Phillips paraphrase of verses two through four, because it will help enrich our examination of this passage. Phillips renders it this way: *"When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence."*
What I think Phillips is saying there is that you will be mature in your Christian character, and in that context you will not be detached from the world, but you will have the world and the things of the world in their right perspective. That includes all the things we typically discuss in that kind of conversation — plus trials, temptations, and difficulties. If I do not get all the way to verse four this week, we will certainly pull it into what we look at next week. I expect next week we will look at verses five through twelve.
The Author: James, Half-Brother of Jesus
The letter begins with the author identifying himself. His name is James. I am not going to go deep into this for time's sake, but there are three or four options scholars discuss. Most agree that this is James, the half-brother of Jesus. Now, when you say half-brother of Jesus, that raises a lot of red flags for people, and I will come back to that in a moment.
We believe this is, chronologically, the first book written in the New Testament. I do not know about you, but when I became a Christian and picked up the New Testament, I assumed it was written in chronological order — that Matthew came first, then Mark, and so on, which seems to make sense with Revelation at the end. That is not the case. The first book written, if we were to date the books of the New Testament, was the book of James, somewhere between 44 and 49 AD.
Why James Matters
Let me read you a couple of observations from different authors. One makes this point: few books of the New Testament are better known or more often quoted than James. It is probably one of the two or three most popular books of the New Testament.
That popularity does not mean everyone has embraced it warmly. Martin Luther, for instance — and that may be too strong of language, though by the end of his life he seemed to embrace it more — largely rejected it and did not focus there. I think that is partly a product of his times, since he was pouring himself into the book of Romans.
James Boyce writes this about the letter: "James talks about wealth, how to use it, gossip, hypocrisy, how we choose our friends, and other such very practical things. We find ourselves saying, 'I don't like that. Give me a good lecture on theology. Teach me about grace or justification. Better yet, let's discuss eschatology.' Those subjects are interesting, but when you talk about who my friends should be, what —"
Introduction to the Book of James
James is a very practical book. When we get to chapter three, it contains the longest contiguous passage in all of Scripture dealing with the tongue. James talks a great deal about interpersonal relationships, true religion, and works — and by works, not salvation by works, but what we should be working our way through. As one author comments, this book meddles. It addresses what we should do with our mouths, what we should do with our disposable income. James goes right after these things head-on.
I believe that is especially true if you are in a good church. I will tip my hand here: I believe Redemption is a good church. And part of what makes a church a good church, at its core, is whether you teach the Bible.
I want to be clear about what I am not saying. I am not claiming to be a great Bible teacher. I am on record: I think I am a solid five, maybe a six on a good day. I genuinely believe that. But even a solid five or six who is earnestly trying is going to attract a certain kind of people — not just to that person, but to that church. You get a reputation for that, and you desire it.
The Danger of Studying Without Doing
We want to dig deep, and I am all for going deep. But we need to be very careful. When we talk about going deep, I want to make sure it is not an excuse to study more and do nothing. We can study and study and study — and we should. I read a lot, I study a lot, and I spend time in the Word for my own soul. On a normal week I teach seven times and at least two different lessons, so studying is a constant necessity for me.
But it can very easily become — and it is tempting — to study for the sake of study and never get to the doing. Even the doing can become systematic rather than organic, so that we spend a lot of time thinking about everything rather than actually doing it. James goes right after that in chapter one, verse 22, when he says, "Prove yourselves to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers of the Word." That is the charge.
The Problem James Addresses
Another author writes this: "The problem James introduces is the problem we face when things don't go the way we'd like them to go or the way we'd planned. It's a problem when we find ourselves saying, 'Why did this go wrong for me? Why did God let this happen?' — and specifically, 'Why did God let it happen to me?'" James battles this question head-on.
Who Was James?
James identifies himself at the outset, but notably not as a brother of Christ — even though we are fairly convinced this is the James who wrote the letter. If you come from a Catholic background — as I do, having attended Catholic grade school, high school, and college — you will know that the Catholic Church teaches the perpetual virginity of Mary. But we believe Scripture speaks clearly on this. Matthew chapter one, verse twenty-five tells us that Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth. And we are introduced in Matthew and in Luke's Gospel to Jesus' brothers and sisters. So James is one of those brothers.
A couple of other things about James are worth noting. He was one of the pillars of the early church. His nickname — which sounds derogatory but was actually a compliment — was "Old Camel Knees," because his knees were distorted from spending hours in prayer. I say all of that to drive home a characteristic of James that may not be obvious on a casual reading, but makes total sense when you look at it carefully.
James the Bondservant
James identifies himself as a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. A bondservant was a slave utterly and completely dependent upon, and loyal to, his master. We learn a great deal about James from what he does not say. He does not say, "You might not know me, but I'll bet you know my brother." He does not say, "You might not know me, but I'll bet you know our mother." He does not mention being a pillar of the church or draw attention to his calloused knees from prayer. He does none of that.
He simply identifies himself as James — and not James the free man, but James the slave. He is one who is enslaved to his master, utterly dependent upon him, having given up personal freedom for the sake of serving him. And that is really a description of all of us. We are all slaves to something. The question is simply who we are going to enslave ourselves to. No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and the things of God while also serving the world and the things of the world. We learn a great deal about James just from that little phrase: James, a bondservant.
Now, who is he a bondservant of? This may seem like a small or anecdotal detail, but I think even that single sentence is evidence of the deity of Christ.
Writing to the Scattered
Many of you have siblings. Can you imagine yourself saying, "Here you go, I'm Tom, slave to my brother Dan"? I think we learn a lot about the deity of Christ right there. I don't need to get to that to prove His deity, but to me there is an inference there, at least an interesting one.
"To the twelve tribes" is frequently a New Testament term used to describe the nation of Israel, and the twelve tribes are "dispersed abroad" — that would be any place outside of Palestine. So his audience primarily is Jewish believers who were scattered, probably for two reasons.
One reason is simply obedience to what they heard. Jesus says He wants you to go and make disciples, so in obedience to that, they were going and making disciples. The second reason, and I think it is the bigger one, is that they were under intense persecution. Once they came to Christ, there would be intense persecution at the marketplace, because they could no longer transact business the way they used to and Jews would no longer do business with them. There would also be relational and family persecution, because those relationships were severed.
So James is writing to people who are refugees, who were scattered — needy people. Think Haiti. They need food and shelter. They are poor, and even what wealth they have is not liquid or accessible. And it was probably more difficult in that day and age, culturally, to travel and intermix and fit in than it would be now. You just do not move from Palestine to Egypt in that day and age and simply fit in. This was a very hard road for them.
A Personal Note on Prayer
I want to share something briefly, partly because it genuinely relates to our discussion today. Susan is in the hospital — she went in on New Year's Eve, we were there for three or four days, came home, and then she went back in. She will probably be out today or tomorrow. The only thing we need, and I mean this sincerely, is prayer. She is not looking for visitors, and I am not looking for food. Every time she gets sick, I gain weight — she is sick, she does not eat, you bring food, and it is always good, and no one eats it but me. So please keep her in prayer.
The Greeting and the Command
So after that first verse — "greetings" — James moves into the heart of the letter. That greeting is simply the common expression of the day, equivalent to "how are you" or "what's new." And now he gets into the substance of his message.
"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." That first word, "consider," means to think about, to deliberate. It is not casual — it is an imperative. James is telling his readers to think carefully about this, and they are going to have to, because what he is asking them to do is counterintuitive and unnatural.
Notice also that he says "my brethren." In this short five-chapter book, he uses the phrase "my brethren" or "my beloved brethren" fifteen or sixteen times. He is talking to people with whom he feels a personal kinship, a closeness, a love, an affection. He is writing to people dispersed abroad, likely under duress and strain, and he is giving them information that on the surface makes no sense. Your natural instinct is not to be joyful when trials come.
Unpacking "Various Trials"
Look at the second part of verse 2. James wants you to be joyful, and here is when you are to be joyful: "when you encounter various trials." From just reading that phrase, we learn several things quickly.
He modifies "trials" with the word "various." To us, "various" might simply suggest more than one, but if he meant more than one, he would have said "many." The Greek word behind "various" carries the idea of multi-colored — different shapes and sizes, different timing, and a personal quality to each trial. What might be a trial for you might not necessarily be one for me. What could be a mountain, a Mount Everest, for me might be a speed bump to you.
Perhaps the most important word in the phrase, though, is the very first one: "when." Notice what James does not write. He does not say, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, if you encounter trials." He says "when you encounter multi-colored trials." That word "when" brings inevitability with it. What he is saying is that all of life carries with it this concept of trials, and you are not exempt from them. If you think that being a Christian exempts you from trials, that is not true. And if you think that as a Christian you may have them or may not, that is not true either.
Testing in Scripture
This is not just a New Testament concept. Psalm 17, verse three: "Thou hast tried my heart, thou hast tested me." Even the psalmist himself asked God to do this. Psalm 26: "Oh Lord, try me, test my mind, test my heart." Psalm 139: "Search me, oh Lord, know my heart." There is also a call to us in Lamentations 3:40: "Let us examine and probe our ways." Even testing our own faith — that is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5: "Test yourself to see if you're in the faith, examine yourselves."
Trials Are Inevitable
This testing is inevitable. Whether you like it or not, you are going to encounter trials — to literally fall into them. The context here is usually unexpected. You can expect that a trial is coming; you just are not sure what it will be or when it will arrive. So count it joy when you fall into these multicolored, many-shaped, many-sized trials.
Trials Are Not Only Negative
Virtually every author I have read, and almost everyone I know who teaches this passage, talks about trials in what we would perceive to be a negative context. One author writes: "Whether the trial begins as a financial problem or a physical illness or a disappointment, criticism, fear, or persecution, it is our attitude about it and response to it that reflects our spiritual condition." That is true. But notice what he called trials: financial problems, physical problems, disappointments, criticisms, fear, persecution. When you hear the word "trial," your tendency is to think of something negative. If I say you are going to be tried tomorrow, you think a financial problem is coming, or one of the kids is going to get sick.
Here is what I want to add to that bouquet of multicolored trials: things we perceive to be good. It is just as big a trial when the scan comes back negative as when it comes back with a spot. It is just as big a trial when the deal closes as when the deal falls through. It is just as big a trial when you get the check as when you do not.
I will appeal to the author Thomas Carlyle, who said that for every hundred people who can pass the test of adversity, there is one who can pass the test of prosperity. When you get the check and the deal closes, you do not find yourself on your knees feeling that you need a Savior and a God. You may acknowledge Him. You may even say, "God, thank you that the deal closed," but there is rarely a deep passion for Him in that moment. But even the most dispassionate person finds a deep passion when the deal falls through. If you go to the doctor and the doctor says everything is fine, you might have a "praise Jesus" moment — but it passes quickly. If the doctor says it is not fine, that it is serious, you are going to have, by and large, a deep, ongoing, personal, intimate discourse with Him.
Do not do yourself the disservice of thinking trials are only bad things. God uses things we might call good in our lives just as much. And all it does is prove what we already know: we do not naturally find ourselves dependent upon Him.
The Goal of Trials: Maturity and Dependence
Recall the J.B. Phillips paraphrase: "Let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed and you will find you've become people of mature character with the right sort of independence." That principle even applies to how we raise children. When my wife Susan and I decided we needed to raise our girls, our overarching strategy was to make them independent of us but dependent upon God.
What trials help us do is achieve a level of maturity in which there is more and more an independence — meaning my attitude, my motivation, my day-to-day mindset is not driven by whether the deal closes or falls through, but by my intimacy with Him. All of that is counterintuitive, and none of it is natural. It is not natural to say there is joy in the midst of pain.
What You Know Trumps What You Feel
That is why, to me, the key word in verses two, three, and four is the very first word of verse three: *knowing.* If I do not know that the testing of my faith produces endurance, I am never going to find joy in it, because all I will see is the test. Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, *because you know* the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Here is the phrase: what you know trumps what you feel. When trials come, you will feel one thing. If you do not know that this is for your own good and God's glory, you will never be able to count it all joy. I understand that realization does not always come instantaneously. Sometimes it takes a day, a week, or a month. Sometimes it takes time to process — to get your breath, as I put it. But when you settle down, you understand that God is being used in this.
A Conversation at the Hospital
I was having dinner last night with Haley. We were at the hospital, just passing each other — I was about to leave and she was going to stay for a while. We sat down together in the cafeteria and talked. She was telling me about some things she had to do that week and some things she had going on. She said, "Gosh, this is just really weird because there's just stuff and I —"
The Purpose of Trials
She said, "But here's what I know." And she said it was so comforting to know that this was exactly God's timing. That's where you want to get. By the way, that's why maturity is not related to age. She's 29, and there are many of you who are 59, some of you who look 109, and yet still don't get this. Does she live in that world 24/7? No, but that's the product of good theology applied in a person's heart. That's the Spirit of God applying the Word of God to her heart.
Testing and Trials in James 1
"Count all joy when you encounter various trials. The testing of your faith produces endurance." The word translated "trials" and the word translated "testing" are two different words that basically carry the same idea — to prove something. The testing is to assess, to take something and see if it is the real thing.
So a test comes into our life, and here is what God is doing: in comes the events of our life. When we get to verse 13 and following, we will see that it involves tempting as well. Satan might use an event to tempt us; God is going to use it to test us. The word translated "trials" is essentially a neutral statement — not positive or negative. These events are designed to show you, the church, your friends, and the world who you really are and what you are really made of.
You have all had that experience. Something will come into your life — a small thing — and you just blow it. All of a sudden, this little thing becomes a big thing, and the spiritual giant you thought you were turns out to be a spiritual midget. And sometimes something will come into your life, and at the end of it you will say, "I had no idea I could have handled that," but you did. That is God revealing something to you.
Trials Have a Purpose
In the whole process of trials and suffering, do they have a purpose? Certainly they do, and God uses them in a variety of ways. You can take this and apply it in your own life — take an incident and watch how God used something that on the surface appears negative in a very positive way. I know many people who have been through horrific things who, at the end, would say, "I never want to go through it again. I never would have chosen this, but I wouldn't trade the experience for the world, because I learned something in the middle of it." That is what he is talking about here.
The Ping Golf Illustration
I have a friend who works for Ping Golf, and one of the things he spends a great deal of time doing is fighting patents internationally, because you can make a product that is a knockoff. Some are easy to spot — if you get a Ping driver and it is spelled P-H-I-N-G, it is probably not the real thing. But some knockoffs require you to hit them a time or two to tell the difference. The difference is not cosmetic; it is structural. It is a difference in the material itself.
The Antiques Roadshow Illustration
One of my all-time favorite shows — and by that I mean when it is on and I have time, I will always check it out — is the Antiques Roadshow. I love it because what the Antiques Roadshow is really about is trying to validate and confirm not just the value of an article, though that is what the people are focused on even if they won't admit it, but the authenticity of an article.
The highest-valued item I ever saw on the show came on a typical Saturday. Susan called, and because I hit the replay button, I said, "Suze, you have to see this." A man came in with a rug — a blanket, actually — that he had been using as a throw on their couch. It was about the size of a floor rug: a quarter navy on one side, a quarter navy on the other, and fifty percent white in the middle. I looked at it and thought, this cannot be worth more than a dollar nineteen — I had seen a hundred of these at Walmart. Then the appraiser said the value at auction would be approximately $500,000. It was a Navajo rug made by a particular artisan.
But those are not my favorite moments. My favorite moments are when someone comes in carefully carrying a wrapped document, sets it down, and the appraiser asks where they got it. "From my grandfather's father's aunt's sister." What is it? "It's a document, and it's signed A. Lincoln." The person can't say much more than that their grandparents lived in Springfield, Illinois. The appraiser examines it, dates it to around 1857 or 1858, confirms it is from Springfield, and notes that it is indeed signed by A. Lincoln. "What do you think it's worth? Oh, I have no idea — I'm just looking for insurance purposes." And the appraiser says, "Well, it's interesting — we did our research, and this A. Lincoln is actually Albert Lincoln, who ran a drugstore in Springfield, Illinois. This is a letter he signed." The person takes it graciously: "That's okay, because it really didn't matter. The value is that it came from my grandparents." Those are my favorite moments. I love them.
Responding to Suffering
The testing of your faith will allow us to discover if what you have is the real thing. R.C. Sproul writes, "To remove God from human suffering is to quit the pilgrimage of faith." God majors in suffering. He displays Himself in holy involvement in all suffering. Rather than be removed from our suffering, it is those circumstances that allow us to see God work. I am paraphrasing Martin Luther, but he basically said you cannot begin to understand hope until you understand hopelessness.
Don't Be Surprised by Suffering
The first thing to understand about how to respond when suffering comes is what we have already talked about: do not be surprised by suffering. I am stunned at how many times I have said it and how many people say yes, and then in reality, when hard things come, we really are surprised. Because in our minds we are thinking, I am a child of the King — why would He do this to me? He is going to allow suffering in your life.
I do not get very upset about too many things, but the health and wealth prosperity gospel really bothers me. To think that the Bible teaches that God only wants you healthy and wealthy is foolish — it is to deny what the Scripture says. It is to deny the example of the apostle Paul, who is tortured all his life by what he identifies as a thorn in the flesh and frequently finds himself in terrible financial conditions in the bowels of a prison, yet says that is all right because it is for the good of the gospel. So do not be surprised by this. I will tell you what you will not hear tomorrow night on Christian television: God may want you sick and poor.
Commit Yourself to the Lord
The second thing is this: when suffering comes, commit yourself to the Lord. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." It takes that moment — not just that initial moment, but that ongoing moment — because you wear down.
I have been with Susan for six years now, and it has become much more intense in the last four or five months than I had seen before. She is so sick of being sick, so tired of being tired. She has had a little daily devotional called *Jesus Calling* — I have bought about my four hundredth copy to give away because she loves it so much. I could not understand why this particular book, because I had never seen her respond to anything quite like this. When you get into it, you find it is about the presence of God, and that absolutely fits right where she is. Sometimes it does not feel like He is there, but you have to commit yourself to Him and know that He will never disappoint you or forsake you.
You Don't Need to Understand Everything
The third thing is this: you do not need to understand all of it. I often hear this from people — most often from women who have husbands that do not believe. They want their husbands to know the faith, and they will say, "The problem is he is just so smart, so analytical." The problem with being very smart sometimes is that it gets in the way of being dependent upon God. The Christian faith is not counter-intellectual — the smartest man America ever produced, Jonathan Edwards, would have obviously adhered to the things we talk about. But do not be so arrogant as to think that God owes you an answer or an explanation for everything He is doing and every question you have.
You Are Not Alone
The fourth thing is to realize you are not the only person who goes through this. My tendency — and I am talking about myself now — is to look at something and say, "I know people suffer, but they have never really had it as deep as I have." If I could invent a product, here is what I would love to invent: something that hooked up to my finger so I could hook it up to your finger and truly understand what you are going through. When Susan says she is hurting so much, I would give anything to hook my finger to hers so I could understand the pain. When somebody says to you, "I have a migraine," your only point of reference is your own headache — you take some Excedrin and it goes away, or you power through it. Our tendency is to think that whatever we are in, we are the only ones who have ever been in it, and that simply is not true.
Pray
The fifth thing is to pray. When I pray, I acknowledge that God can do something about this and that He cares about it — that He controls things. And so often prayer aligns my will with His, rather than His with mine.
Thanking God in the Midst of Trials
Number six: thank God for it, because you know that He is doing it for your good and His glory. The testing of our faith produces endurance. Our desire is to have endurance — that patience, that long-suffering. And remember that paraphrase from Phillips? It is to go through that process so we come out with patience, so we go through it again. It is a process. We go through it again and again and again.
The picture is one of physical aerobics. I am a stress eater, and in the last three or four weeks I have hardly been to the gym. A stress eater who does not go to the gym is not a good combination. But here is what I know: when I go to the gym and work out, even if I am tired, when I come out I feel better and I get more energy. That is the phenomenon of physical aerobics.
What James is saying is that there is a phenomenon of spiritual aerobics, and it is trials. Though it does not make sense, the more you go through, the stronger you get, because you see God's faithfulness each time. As the trial comes, you begin to see Him work in it. The reason to be thankful for it is this: "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, because you know the testing of your faith produces endurance" — verse 4 — and it will mature you. So when you say you want endurance and maturity, he is saying trials are what produce that.
Don't Suffer Needlessly
Number seven: do not be a martyr, and do not suffer needlessly. Do not go marching out saying, "I am supposed to suffer — how can I suffer today?" Trust me, be patient. It will find you. You do not need to pursue this.
Here is something I wrote that summarizes what I have been saying. God has structured and organized our lives to include suffering and difficulties. Our mission is not to stop the suffering prematurely — because that is our flinch, the first thing we want to do is get rid of it. It is not to stop the suffering prematurely, but to first find Him in the midst of our hurt and our pain. We also need to avoid being consumed in the adversity, obsessed with discovering relief, and resisting the ever-present temptation to be absorbed in self-pity. So it is not to stop it prematurely, and it is not to become absorbed in "what about me," but to discover what God is doing to me, in me, and through me. He has structured our lives to include that.
A Better Way to Say It
Larry Wright said it this way, and this is about five hundred times better than anything I could say: "I would rather suffer obediently than prosper disobediently, because I know my obedient suffering is as temporary as my disobedient prospering." He is painting a picture, comparing obedient suffering with disobedient prospering. I would rather suffer obediently than prosper disobediently — why? Because I know my obedient suffering is as temporary as my disobedient prospering. That word "temporary" is the key.
This happened this morning, and it was one of those great moments. A man was coming onto campus around 8:15 with a child wrapped in his jacket, a bag in hand — he looked like the Grapes of Wrath arriving on campus. I said to him, "Hey man, you look really busy, looks like there's a lot going on." Here is what he said to me: "It can only last a lifetime." I do not know where he heard it, but I like that a lot.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for this amazing truth — so practical we can put it to work in our lives today. We will encounter these trials, and we count them as joy. We can respond supernaturally because Your Spirit works in our lives. God, when You do that work, we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.