How To Experience Joy In The Midst Of Trials (Part 2) Series

The reason experience must be evaluated in light of Scripture is that experience is so subjective. James is speaking about experience gained as a result of trials. It is very easy, especially for those believers who are young in their faith, to misinterpret daily trials and look at them as evidence of an unloving, uncaring, and arbitrary God.

Depending on the situation, certain circumstances can even cause those who are not grounded in their faith to begin to question the validity of their faith. The reason for this is that new believers tend to lack a working knowledge of God’s Word that serves as a barometer or litmus test for evaluating their experiences.

If you are a new Christian here this morning, or at any stage of your spiritual development for that matter, you need to know that as you experience trials in your life, God will use those experiences to teach you more about His grace, His mercy, and His sovereignty. God will take the knowledge you gain from past experiences and use them to prepare you for whatever is yet to come.

Not only does God use our experiences to help us have a fuller understanding of the purpose and results of trials, but, as I mentioned before, He also uses our knowledge of His Word to help us to come to that fuller understanding. Not only is it advantageous to have experienced a similar trouble in the past when trying to wade through your current difficulties, but it is also encouraging to be able to recall truths from Scripture, verses you have committed to memory—written on your heart—as you face day-to-day struggles.

That’s why it is so important to not simply read the Bible from time to time, but to know it—to spend time studying it. Psalm 199:105 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. We should carry God’s Word in our hearts the same way we would carry a lamp to light a dark and ominous path.

I remember Mahria recounting for me her experience during the Northridge earthquake. We were living here in Lakeshore at the time. I was working the graveyard shift on patrol, so I wasn’t at home. When the quake hit, Mahria was literally thrown out of bed. Somehow she managed to wade through the debris and find our two daughters. Bachelorette #3, Amanda, was in the oven.

Once Mahria found the girls, the three of them huddled in the doorway to the hallway. We were not big into earthquake preparedness and Mahria really wished she had a flashlight. At the very least, a flashlight would have given Mahria some comfort from the oppressive darkness. It may have even helped her to find her way to the door and get out of the condo.

God’s Word is the same way. When we find ourselves on life’s darkest and most ominous paths, God’s Word serves as a light to bring us comfort and direction. With that said, let’s continue to look at what kind of light God’s Word wants to shed on our lives as we study the keys to experiencing joy during trials.

James says that it is the testing of our faith that produces endurance. What does he mean by that? One way to have a better understanding for what a particular word means in the Bible is by looking at various, reliable translations to see if they use other synonymous for the word you are studying. In this case, the NASB, NIV, and NKJV all use the word testing. The original KJV uses the word “trying,” with a margin note that suggests that the word would be better translated as “testing.”