Sometimes happiness is finding closure in the church split. I call it church progression!!

-What does James 1:2 mean?

Other authors, such as Paul, often open their letters with gradual introductions. Not so with James. Without warming up or giving comforting introductory words, James immediately launches into the foundation of his letter. He begins with a profoundly challenging command. In essence, he says that we should find joy in bad things happening to us.

Of course, that's exactly backwards from a normal human response to hardship. Many of James' readers were likely facing poverty and persecution, but he purposefully uses the words "trials of various kinds." Everyone experiences trials. James means for believers to respond to troubles, regardless of size, by counting that experience as "joy." What in the world could that mean, and why would James write such a demanding thing to suffering people?

As usual, context is key in understanding the meaning of Scripture. Verses 3 and 4 provide crucial explanation for what James means. To stop with this verse will create deep misunderstanding. Also, we must notice what James does NOT say. He doesn't command Christians to "feel happy" when trials come. He tells us to "call it" joyful, to label it as a thing worth rejoicing over.

The word "count" is used in some translations instead of "consider." This is from the Greek hēgēsasthe, which is an accounting term. The word relates to organizing or collecting things. James is implying that we should enter our hardships as deposits into the checkbook of our life, not withdrawals. He's not talking about our immediate emotional response to a flat tire, or an illness, or the loss of a loved one. He's talking about how we categorize that moment when assessing our life as a whole.

It's still a hard command. And yet, it acknowledges something important which we don't always admit: we can decide how we will describe any moment to ourselves. We may not be able to control our circumstances, but we can, apparently, control how we think about our circumstances. When bad things happen, we can immediately say, "This is terrible. This is a bad day. My life is going wrong. Why did this happen to me?" Or we can say to ourselves, "This is a bad thing, but I will get through it. I will learn and be stronger. I will call the growth and strength worth rejoicing over, even while it hurts."

That brings us to the next question: Why would God want us to respond to bad things in this way? The next two verses will answer that question.

Verses 2, 3, and 4 need to be considered together in order to fully grasp the point James is making. In the previous verse, he has written that believers must call it joy when trials come our way. Or, to put it more bluntly, we should see the good side of bad things happening to us. Verse 2 uses an accounting term, which has nothing to do with our emotions. We might feel sorrow or anger over our trials, but we can still tally them under "joy."

Here in verse 3, James gives the beginning of his answer to why God would ask us to do that. In short, it's about faith. It's about trusting God. God wants us to respond to trials—to the hard things in our lives—in a way that demonstrates our trust in Him. A major theme of the book of James is that God cares deeply about our faith in Him. Faith, a trusting, humble reliance on God, is how we came into relationship with Him in the first place. That is how we come to trust in Christ for our salvation. And a Christian's growing faith in God is evidence of a growing relationship with Him.

So, James says that when a trial or hardship comes our way, we should label that moment as joyful because it will test our faith. By definition, a trial creates a moment where we don't know how things will work out. A trial wrecks our plans. A trial takes away our ability to see the clear path to getting what we think will make us happy. It is in those moments that we make life's most critical choices. Either we will decide, "If God let this happen to me, I will not trust Him. If He will not prevent days like this, I will find someone else to trust." Or, the struggle will push us to turn to God for more help, to trust more deeply that He is with us and for us, to believe that He will carry us through.

When we choose to trust Him, He provides. Our endurance—the ability to keep trusting Him while trials continue unresolved—grows. And since our faith is the most important thing to our God, that is worth rejoicing

-It is church progression indeed. I enjoyed going to church. I was so so happy for the 1st time in a year to go to church.

- Enjoying revived prayer life