Lesson 9
March 31, 2004
Step Two—Count it All Joy
One of
the basic facts of life we all have to live with and must learn to handle is
the reality of pain and suffering. There will be some potholes in the road of
life as long as we're in this sin cursed world.
We must
not forget that whether its undeserved suffering or SIM, they are necessary
since they are tools that God has chosen to use to get our attention and to
train and motivate us to consistently look to Him for our daily provision,
support.
Attitudes Needed in Trials — The Directive
(1: 2)
(1) The
Command to Obey — “consider it all joy”
“consider” or “count” is hgeomai and
means (a) “to reckon as, think, consider, conclude, regard it so,” (b) the idea is to examine something
carefully; to add up the facts and arrive at a conclusion
Like a
lineman who runs interference for a halfback in football, we are to run
interference with God’s viewpoint and knock down any wrong responses that might
have risen up against the knowledge of God and His purposes (2
Cor. 10:4-5).
2 Cor 10:4-5 provides us
insight on how to deal with these types responses.
He
gives us the principle on how we should also deal with and respond to unfair
and unjust treatment.
We
as believers are in a battle, in the midst of a spiritual warfare; but notice that we have been given weapons to
fight this warfare!
Can
you control what you think??
What
are these fortresses that we are to tear down?
What
is on the throne here??
Does this context
say that the believer is in control of your thinking or not??
* Every time we pick up God's Word, every time we assemble as we are
commanded to do to study together His word; Some human viewpoint ought to be
destroyed.
Back to James 1:2
“All
joy” is placed in an emphatic position in the original text. The emphasis is clearly on the words “all
joy.” James did not just say, “count it joy”, but “count it all joy.”
In the
Bible, joy is
used of a good emotion that flows from thinking on and trusting in the benefits
and blessings of God’s love, wisdom, plan, and purposes.
Several illustrations of
suffering, we should consider the following:
(a) In the life of our Lord (Cross - Heb.
12:1-3; 1 Pet. 2:21-23; Great pathos at
the spiritual state of His people Israel
Lk 13:34-35; Lk
19:41 );
(b) In the life of Paul (Phil.