When Troubles Come and Stay, Part 3

Today on Insight for Living We read of God's cultivating character in us and maturity through us when we take the trials as they come and rather than complaining about them and thereby making other people miserable because of our trial, through it with a sense of satisfaction that God is at work. Most of us understand that struggles are a part of life, and we've developed coping mechanisms when little glitches come our way.

The occasional hiccup is no big deal, but what happens when our problems are huge and relentless? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from James Chapter 1. In this passage, the Bible gives us timeless wisdom on dealing with trials. If you missed the previous programs when Chuck started this study, no worries.

We'll begin with some helpful highlights. Chuck titled his message, When Troubles Come and Stay. When James writes to us and to them, all who are suffering, he answers three questions as he talks about trials. He deals first with what's true about troubles? What can we say about troubles when they come? Well, they are inevitable.

Notice the term is not if. Dear brothers and sisters, if troubles come, no, no, no, no, no, not if. Because you are brothers and sisters, because you are in the family of God, trials are inevitable. They're inescapable.

They're unavoidable. But the second I want you to observe is that they have a purpose. All trials come with a purpose in mind. We're not just accidentally thrown onto a stage of life and left to fend for ourselves as God goes about his business of running the things of heaven. No.

No. Those things that occur to us are all part of his plan. Please observe as you read through these verses. When troubles come your way, it is an opportunity for you to view them with a positive spirit called you're considering it a great joy for you know that your faith is tested.

A trial is a faith test. And your endurance is given a chance to grow. And as a result, our maturity is developed. I love the way the Living Bible renders these first two verses. When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your life, my brothers and sisters, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Because that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. Let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed. And you will find that you have become men and women of mature character.

The right sort of independence. How much better than asking why has this happened and and why did this happen to me? To ask what is there in this? I have to learn. I know there that God's teaching me in this journey called the Christian life, which includes the inevitability of trials that are purposeful. Now then, to move ahead.

How can we live above them? First is the word consider. In verse two, consider it all joy. Interestingly, the Greek sentence, verse two begins, all joy.

Isn't that interesting? The very first words out of the chute in that second verse is all joy. It's a deep seated positive spirit. It's a depth of understanding that says, there's a reason for this. And if I could know my God better, I could understand better why this is happening.

It would help me know myself so much better. I wonder what his purpose is in this. So consider is the first word. Look at the verse three. Look at the word know.

K-N-O-W. It reads, for you know that when your faith is tested, by knowing that you are better able to consider it with a positive spirit. Knowing that this is deepening your faith and that it is increasing your endurance and it is enhancing your character and it is building your maturity.

Oh my, you can't beat that combination. But let me add, all of it comes to us on the platform of a trial. What we would not have chosen and often what we would never have expected. Plus, it's painful.

But valuable. Now, the third word is in verse five. Look at it. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God. The word is ask.

But it's preceded by the reason you're asking. It's something you and I were not born with. We don't inherit it.

We cannot take a course at school, not even a graduate school that teaches us wisdom. We don't get it necessarily by being next to someone who is wise, though that may benefit us. Wisdom is housed in the mind of our God. And he is willing to share it with us at those times when we need it the most.

In fact, I love the way it reads. If you need wisdom and let me interrupt by adding, wisdom is looking at life from God's point of view. There's so little of that, none of it in the evening news. None of it in the media.

So little of it in the public square. Much of it in the scriptures. All of it with our God. And because I am shy of the needed wisdom or perspective on life, I go before him and this is the way I handle it. Lord, I'm in the midst of a mess. It's a situation, part of which I caused and part of which I didn't, but I'm here. And it has brought maybe loss or heartache or a feeling of failure or disappointment to myself and to others. So I need you to enable me to see through your perspective what I can learn through this. Help me, Lord, to glean from this experience your perspective on the situation. Help me to see what's occurred and perhaps by your grace, why it's happened so that I might grow in an understanding of it.

I need your wisdom because I don't have it in myself. I've just finished reading The Point of It All by Charles Krauthammer, his final work before his death. Krauthammer, much like our own friend Johnny Erickson, suffered a paralysis from an accident he had. But he was determined, though a young man at the time it happened, that it would not stop him in his tracks and turn him into a pitiful piece of humanity. On the contrary, he would, like Beethoven, take life with the throat. And indeed, he did for his years on this earth. We all have have read him and are listened to him in his televised presence on various news broadcasts. He had pursued the medical profession, earned a medical degree, though paralyzed, and went into psychiatry and remained there for five years and finally realized, no, that's not for me.

I don't want to spend the rest of my life analyzing myself and others. I want to spend my life helping people interpret life as it is. And so he became actively involved as a writer. And he distinguished himself as such. His son, Daniel Krauthammer, writes the eulogy at the end of the book.

It's a beautiful piece because it ties in with what I'm sharing. I want to quote from Daniel's words. Listen, listen to his remembering his father's counsel. Don't be defined by what life throws at you and you cannot control. Accept the hand you are dealt with grace.

And then go on to play that hand as joyously and industriously and vigorously as you can. What beautiful counsel. Daniel adored his father for obvious reasons. Not a perfect man, far from it, but a man who helped Daniel become the man he is.

There's no reason a trial should ever go to waste. The secret is in asking for the wisdom you need to get you through the events of the adversity. There's one more word and it is the word endure that appears several times through this passage.

Endure. Interesting. It's from a Greek term again. Two words put together. Hoopo means under. Meno means to abide or to remain.

You put the words together. It means to remain under. It was used to describe a mule or a donkey before your long trek that you were going to take.

And you loaded the animal down with the weight of those things you were carrying and the animal on its four legs would hoopo meno beneath the load, would abide under. That is what we are called to do in trials. We see the word and and we read of God's cultivating character in us and maturity through us when we take the trials as they come. And rather than grousing about them, complaining about them and thereby making other people miserable because of our trial, we endure and go through it with a sense of satisfaction that God is at work. He says a word to the poor.

He says a word to the rich. It's all designed to bring it all into balance, regardless of your financial status. You will be leveled to at the same level and trials do that to us. And when we endure them, there is so much to be learned and gained from it. You get the point. God blesses us and we are, as a result, recipients of those blessings. And that brings me to this third question.

When we've handled our troubles as we should. What then? Well, the secret is in understanding. Verse 12. Look again at your passage. God blesses those who patiently endure. There's our word again. God blesses those who patience. So immediately there is a sense of inner peace for you handle trials God's way rather than in the flesh. There is a sense of satisfaction. Which is called here the blessings from God. We realize our character is being cultivated. We realize that the benefits will be ours long term.

Even though at the present time, adversity is our lot. And then afterward, look closely at verse 12. He says afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

What a promise. Have you been taught or are you aware that when we die and we stand before our Lord for the time of rewards by his grace, that there are literal crowns that he has set aside for us? Five are named in the New Testament. Five crowns. The imperishable crown. First Corinthians nine, verse twenty five. And then there's the crown of exaltation. First Thessalonians two in verse nine. Then there is the crown of righteousness.

Paul mentions on his last writings in Second Timothy Chapter four, verse eight. The crown of right. And here is the crown of life promised to those who endure testing. And then the final is the crown of glory. Peter mentions that in First Peter five in verse four, five different crowns.

There's an old song. Will there be any stars in my crown? Bible never speaks of stars in crowns. That's a little imaginative writing from a from a songwriter, but it does speak of crowns. These are crowns that that are earned, if you will, by handling life God's way. I began this message by referring to wretched souls bruised with adversity. I've come up with a better line, I think, than that. I think it would be much better to be known as wise souls matured through adversity. That's what I would wish for all of us.

That we would become the wiser through adversity. Some years ago, a man named Andre Crouch was going through a very difficult, painful time in his life. You who were living at the time and remember some of the songs he left us will remember one of them, especially. He wrote it in the late 60s, early 70s, and the old lyrics are just not sung anymore, regrettably. Although I often think it would be wonderful to sing them as a congregation, and perhaps we will in the days ahead. He calls his song Through It All. Note the title. Through It All.

Listen to the lyrics. I've had many tears and sorrows. I've had questions for tomorrow. There have been times I didn't know right from wrong. But in every situation, God, here's the wisdom, God gave blessed consolation that my trials come to only make me strong. I thank God for the mountains. And I thank him for the valleys. I thank him for the storms he brought me through. For if I'd never had a problem, I'd never know that he could solve them. I'd never know what, I'd never know what faith in God could do.

And then the chorus. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to depend upon his word. I really don't know where you are today in your journey.

There's no way I could know with a group this size. And I don't need to know. But I can assure you God knows. And he is deliberately leading you through it. I urge you to let it run its course. Let it be.

Take it as it is. Seek his mind as you ask for the wisdom he will give. And approach it knowing that he is at work bringing you a depth in life that you would otherwise miss. And if you've never trusted in Christ, that is the place to begin.

Maybe the trial has come to make you aware that you can't handle life on your own. You need the Savior. Come to him.

Turn to him now. Bow with me, will you? Through it all, through it all, we've learned to trust in Jesus. We've learned to trust in God. We've learned to depend upon his word. Thank you, dear Lord, for never leaving us or walking away from us and abandoning us. I pray for those who hear these words today going through a very painful time in their lives that you would remind them that you're at work.

And the trial has a purpose. And your plan is unfolding even this day. And bring us to a sense of reassurance as we trust you while going through it all. And I pray this in the name of Jesus and for his sake alone. Everyone said, Amen.

Amen. Completing the first of 12 studies in his brand new series, you're listening to the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll. Chuck titled this new series, Clinging to Hope.

For more about this ministry, we invite you to visit us online at insideworld.org. As you heard Chuck speak today, perhaps you've been thinking about the unwelcome trials that have come your way. Here at Inside for Living, we're praying that God would use this message to help you reframe those trials, as James taught us.

In addition to these daily programs, Chuck has written a brand new book as well. It's also called Clinging to Hope. In his latest book, Chuck answers relevant questions like, why is there so much suffering in our world? How do we cope when doors of opportunity get slammed shut?

And how should we respond when calamity crashes in? In the authentic and refreshing style you've come to expect from Chuck, we know you'll appreciate owning this brand new work, Clinging to Hope. To purchase a copy right now, go to insight.org slash hope or call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. When you also include a donation to support the Ministry of Insight for Living, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you're helping people around the world. I saw this note that said, Chuck, I'm a pastor in Damascus, Syria.

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