Count It All Joy

James 1:1
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.
Persecution was the most common trial among Jewish believers in James’s time. Today, a trial can be a number of things: the loss of a job, a divorce, trouble with our children, severe financial strain, illness or death in the family, or relational problems over which we seem to have little control. Though our trials may not seem as severe as the persecution of James’s day, note that James does not say “if” we encounter trials, but “when” we encounter trials. And when these trials come, our first strategy, according to James, is to “count it all joy.”

To count, or consider, it all joy in the midst of our trials is to respond with a deliberate, intelligent appraisal of our situation. We must learn to look at our situation from God’s perspective and recognize that, though the trial is not a happy experience in itself, it is God’s way of producing something of great value. The word “count” means “to think in terms of the future.” James is not saying we are to rejoice over pain, but we are to rejoice because God’s purposes are being accomplished in our lives.

Jeremiah, D. (2002). Sanctuary : Finding moments of refuge in the presence of God (36). Nashville, TN: Integrity Publishers.

How Do You Feel?

"...it is no final answer to one of the most subtle attacks upon the Christian faith today simply to say that we have experienced certain things, or that we are in a certain position now. Many people take up that argument and they often imagine that it is a cogent one. They turn to the world and say, ‘You can say what you like about the Bible, you can criticize the Christian faith as much as you like, but you cannot make any difference to me because I am happy. The gospel has done this and that for me and as a result I am quite immune to all your criticisms.’ I know what such friends mean when they say something like that, but it seems to me that it is not only putting the Christian position at the very lowest, but there is also a sense in which it does not begin to meet the attack made upon the faith.<
For the fact is, of course, that if we are going to base our position solely upon what we feel, and what we are at this moment, then we have nothing to say to the attack thus made upon the Christian faith, especially by psychology.
There are many today who would explain all our faith in terms of psychology. They claim it as a very clever and subtle form of self-persuasion, just a way of shifting your difficulties on to another plane. ‘It is good psychology,’ they say, ‘and anything that makes a man happier is a good thing, in and of itself; Christians may use all these great terms, but actually it is nothing but a bit of psychology. As you know, there are many false teachings, such as Christian Science, which are quite unjustifiable, but which can make people very happy.’
So, then, if we base our position entirely upon experience, we will convince nobody. The answer to the good psychology argument is that we are dealing with certain historical events and facts which we must never allow ourselves to forget. Indeed, I am prepared to go as far as to say that whatever I may feel at this moment, though I may feel that I am in a state of darkness and blackness, and am utterly discouraged, my position is still safe and I am secure because of these things that have been done in history outside of me and before I was ever born. Thank God I do not base my position on how I feel. Feelings are treacherous, they come and go, and what little control we have upon them! We have all had the following experience, have we not? We wake up one morning and find ourselves full of peace and joy and happiness, and all seems to go well. We have a marvellous day, we read our Bibles, we have freedom in prayer, and all is well, so we look forward to the next day being still more wonderful. But, strangely enough, we find that when we wake up the next morning we are lifeless and dull. If you are going to base your whole position upon experience and feelings, you are going to be a very unhappy person and your Christian life is going to be very unstable. But the answer is, I repeat, this marvellous plan of salvation. I must, of course, know that I am related to it—that is essential—but what I am arguing for is that if you want to enjoy these blessings and if you want to live this Christian life truly, you do so by looking at these things, by resting upon them and by saying, if you like, in the words of a hymn:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness,
I dare not trust my sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
Edward Mote"

Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (2000). The assurance of our salvation : Exploring the depth of Jesus' prayer for His own : Studies in John 17. Originally published separately in four vols., 1988-89. (84). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

Believing in Jesus

"One does not ultimately become one of Christ’s sheep by believing in him. This position Jesus expressly repudiates in John 10:26 when he says: “You do not believe, because you are not my sheep.” Rather than saying that men are not his sheep because they do not believe in him, Jesus says that they do not believe in him because they are not his sheep. In other words, the Father must have elected them and summoned them first, that is, they must first be his sheep, before they can come to him, that is, believe in him. Then, concerning those who are his sheep by virtue of the Father’s election and effectual summons, Jesus declares: “My sheep [the “my” is emphatic in the Greek] hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (10:27); that is, as their Shepherd, he knows them, and as his sheep, they hear and follow him as a matter of course. And of those who are his sheep, Jesus says that they shall never perish, and that no one will or can snatch them out of his and his Father’s hands. Here Jesus affirms the saint’s eternal security in terms of that precious Shepherd-sheep relationship which eternally prevails between him and his own."

Source: Reymond, R. L. (1998). A new systematic theology of the Christian faith. Lectures delivered at Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. and Knox Theological Seminary, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (783). Nashville: T. Nelson.