The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
Faith Under Fire: Navigating Life's Trials with Joy
We spend countless hours debating theological concepts, but how often do we pick up the phone to comfort someone who's hurting? This raw, honest conversation tackles the universal Christian experience of trials, temptations, and afflictions—and why they're actually essential to our spiritual growth.
The discussion challenges a dangerous misconception in modern Christianity: that suffering indicates spiritual failure or lack of faith. Contrary to prosperity gospel teaching, Scripture actually promises that trials will come to every believer. As James 1:2 instructs, we're to "count it all joy when you fall into various temptations"—not if, but when they arrive.
This powerful teaching distinguishes between happiness (which depends on circumstances like jobs, relationships, and possessions) and joy (which persists regardless of external conditions). True joy comes from understanding that God uses our hardships to develop patience and spiritual maturity. As one participant powerfully testified: "I know God loves me because I've been through trials—I need them to be molded into His character."
The most convicting aspect of this conversation is its spotlight on how Christians respond to others' suffering. Many believers can articulate complex doctrinal positions yet fail at the simple act of showing compassion. A brief phone call, a home-cooked meal, or just a few minutes of prayer can be more powerful than the most eloquent theological argument.
Has someone in your circle been going through a difficult season? Take a moment today to reach out—it might be the most important ministry you perform this week. Remember, the world will know we are Christians not by our doctrinal precision, but by our love.
Christians, good evening. How are you all this evening, this Thursday night? I trust you are well and I hope that you are having a blessed day and as you approach the end of this week and roll into this weekend, tonight I want to talk about something that might be considered something that is easy to grasp the understanding of. However, it is not so easy to live by. It's very difficult, very difficult, very difficult. So tonight I want to talk about temptations, trials and afflictions Temptations, trials and affliction, and I think it is needful because it seems that so many of us are having to undergo and endure hardships, people that I know here and people in my personal life, and it just seems to be something that has laid hold of a great many people in my surroundings. And I want to take a step back from some of the typical doctrinal themes that many of us discussed and deal with, how we apply a lot of those doctrinal themes into our personal lives and how we should understand them, how we are to view them, how we are to consider them. So these things are usually very, very sobering things to have to handle, have to handle, and it's important for us that we understand the kind of people that the Lord, god, is rearing in this world to be his eternal servants in glory. There's a preparation that takes place here that we must go through and that we must overcome, and that we must endure in order to be prepared for our departure from this place. This is a subject that touches every one of us, if not personally, it touches us indirectly, with people that we care about and that we love greatly, but this is not a subject that anyone here can disagree with. There's nothing here that can be the topic of great debate.
Speaker 1:However, as we all know, there are many people who can find reasons to turn even something like this into something bad, and people might tell you things like this that if you're going through something difficult, you must not be right with God. If you're going through something difficult, it is because you lack faith. That if you're going through something difficult, it is retribution for past sins. So we have all these things that people are left to conclude, and these conclusions can often come from those who are supposed to be your spiritual leaders or friends. Your friends, yep, your family, your neighbors and people love to see you in this situation Makes you vulnerable. They want to see you in poverty. They want to see you sick, they want to see you struggling and they feign interest in your condition. But the minute things have turned for you, you will sense an element of indignation from people like this.
Speaker 1:But here, in this particular topic, we're not talking about other people. Let's deviate from that topic. Other people when, every time we get into these, a lot of times when we get into these discussions, theological discussions, we often say or use the expression what people say, what people are doing, what people are doing, what people are thinking, what other people are doing, whatever. This is something that I think that all of us need to look to ourselves and understand, because it will make you a more formidable soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ. There is not one single person On this live. There's not one single person who may be in the comments. There's not one single person who may be listening, who has not been touched With dealing with great affliction and great trial in life.
Speaker 1:But it is the role of God's ministers to comfort his people. It is your role. It is your role and my role To bring about comfort to those who are suffering, to those who are Undergoing affliction of various types. And see, this is where the word of God, g, gets put into shoe leather. This is where the word of God hits the road. This is where our walk is affected and this is the road that most people want to go down, not just the people going through the affliction, but this is often a road that the people who have the ability and the wherewithal to bring comfort to the afflicted. This is also a road they don't want to go down. They don't want to go down Christians who stand by and offer nothing to bring comfort or aid to other Christians.
Speaker 1:There will be Christians like me who can argue about the truth all day and yet be unwilling to bring comfort, exhortation, aid to those who are afflicted. It's the way of the world. People will, from every walk of life who are, who don the name Christian, can tell you everything you're supposed to believe. Everyone is an expert on what you are supposed to believe. Once saved, always saved, can you lose your salvation? Is hell eternal? Is hell fire? Is purgatory real? Everybody has all the answers. Should we get baptized? Does the law matter today, all these things? But the easiest thing to believe and to understand is when Christ tells us to love our neighbor as ourself and to love God with all your heart and to love God with all your heart, to bring ease to others, is how we express this.
Speaker 1:I wonder how many people, when they are getting into their high and lofty debates on these lofty things in the word of God, but it's the smaller things that people fail to do. We can read all of the great. You know the books and the commentaries from all of the great minds. We can read the history of church, of the church. You know how it grows and what we're supposed to do. We attend services. People go to churches every week and sit in a congregation and they never know any more people in that church than they did the first day they walked in those doors.
Speaker 1:The needs of other people are never questioned. Do you need me? Can I help you? How can I help you? And all the people who ignore these things are the ones who have no problem presenting themselves as experts in understanding the word of God. Everybody is a teacher, everybody's a teacher, everybody's a teacher.
Speaker 1:But we neglect the smaller things Easing people's afflictions and their troubles, helping them go through their trials and their troubles, helping them go through their trials and their temptations and the simplest things go undone. When was the last time you called someone who was in trouble and just said I want to pray for you, right here on the phone right now? I know that what you're going through is hard. You don't have to say anything, just listen, I'm going to pray for you and I'm going to hang up the phone. When was the last time you've done that? When was the last time somebody was going through troubles and you just called them up and just had a goofy moment for four or five minutes to get their minds off of their troubles?
Speaker 1:You see, doing these kinds of things is when you show and demonstrate that the love of God is really in you, and this is how others know that the love of God is in us. The love of God is not displayed in your understanding of the doctrines of the Bible. I understand and I love the word of God to a great degree. Many things I don't know. Many people here perhaps know far more than I do. But it is not going to be your knowledge of particular set of doctrines and a particular set of these themes in the Bible that bring you to heaven. It is going to be an expression of love that you show and, believe me, teaching people the truth is part of that. It is so I'm not poo-pooing on knowing the word of God and teaching it. Just all these things must be done.
Speaker 1:But if you're playing basketball, for instance, isn't a layup right underneath the rim a lot easier than a three pointer from behind the arc or a slam dunk in the middle of three or four people that are like four or five inches taller than you? A layup is always the easiest. And in what I'm talking about, the layup takes the form of recognizing a simple need that someone has, and that simple need can be as simple as just a phone call. Just a phone call, just a phone call, just telling somebody hey, let me babysit your kid tonight and you and your husband go out and have dinner, making dinner for somebody and taking it to their house when the wife is in the bed after she had a baby or whatever, sick or ailing. Everybody knows all the truths of the word of God, but they don't know how to do this.
Speaker 1:We read in James, chapter one, verse two. He says my brethren, and this is for those who are going through trials and temptations. And he says and when I say this, when I read this. There's two sides of this. There's the person who is going through the trials and the temptations and the afflictions. There are those. And then there are those who are on the outside witnessing this because they have a decision to make as well. The person in the trial has no decision to make, but to go through it. Sure, they try to find ways to bring resolution to their conditions, as they should do.
Speaker 1:It is our job to find ways to improve upon our situation. It is our job to find ways to improve upon our situation. But when God has given you trials and temptations, you're going to go through them and yes, I said, when God gives them to you, he is the one who gives them to you. But then there are those other people, those other believers, who are on the outside Seeing what you're going through, and very often I would venture, most often, do nothing, do nothing. The attitude is I don't have enough for myself, how can I offer it to someone else? It is an approach that comes straight from the pit, Because that in and of itself shows a lack of faith, because if you give something out of the nothing that you have, the blessing for you is greater when you do so God sees it. He sees it, and when he sees your great work that you do in private, does it not say that he shall reward you openly? Now I can imagine brains sizzling people trying to find fault in these words. Somehow, somewhere along the way, what I'm talking about now, somebody will be finding something doctrinally incorrect. This is what plagues Christianity today Always trying to find some flaw in something, because to understand it implies putting it to work.
Speaker 1:If you know that you've been predestined to salvation, what does it cause you to do? If you know that your salvation can never be lost, that you're been predestined to salvation, what does it cause you to do? If you know that your salvation can never be lost, that you're preserved in a grace by the faith that has been given to you, if you know that you're going to be preserved in your salvation, what manner of people should that make us? If we know that we were born dead instead of trespassers? What degree of compassion, how wide and how tall, should we have to those who we know now are like what we used to be? We make the simplest things very difficult. We make the simplest things very difficult. Jesus said it was swallowing a camel and straining at a net.
Speaker 1:In James 1-2, he says my brethren, he's talking to Christians and, by the way, the whole word of God is to believers. The whole of the word of God is to believers, those who were elect in God, in Christ, like Trevor says fellow brethren, listen to what he says Count it all joy when you fall into various temptations, trials First. He's talking to believers. He's talking to believers and he says count it all joy, not if you fall into diverse temptations. He says count it all joy when you all fall into temptations. Now there's two things he says here Count it all joy when it happens, and he also tells you that it will happen to us all. And he says to count it all joy. Now I'm going to keep talking for a little bit, but I want people on the panel to begin to think about examples of people who struggled in the Bible but did so with great joy.
Speaker 1:There's a brother that's on TikTok and he has a, I think, a prison ministry and I think he used to be in prison. He goes by Eric Montoya, brother I love. He calls himself the True or something like that the true. I love this guy. I hear him every morning and one of the things that he says is something like if you got no joy. I can't remember what it is, but he says something about joy every day, every day, and he's right and it's a very simple message Joy, he says. My brother counted all joy.
Speaker 1:He doesn't say look at it as it happening to you because you have a lack of faith. That's what Kenneth Copeland will tell you. That's what all these false people and these pulpits will tell you. There's sin in your life. There's a lack of faith, something you did. You're not truly a Christian if you're going through this. But what does James tell us? His counsel to us is brethren, count it all a joy. If this was military folks on the battleground he's talking about. When you get on that front line, count it all joy. When the generals tell you to go out there to heal the battle, count it all joy. We are supposed to be those who are merciful to others. We're supposed to be those who carry the words of God which bring healing to souls. The very words of God are in our mouths and they are the balm of Gilead. He says count it all, joy, joy.
Speaker 1:There's a big difference between joy and happiness. There's a big difference. Happiness is circumst, big difference. Happiness is circumstantial. Happiness has a lot to do with getting what you want. But notice how the world looks at things. Be happy If you get what you want. Be happy that you got it. You have a home, you're happy. You have a car, you're happy. You have a six-figure job, you're happy. You have a home, you're happy. You have a car, you're happy. You have a six-figure job, you're happy. You have health insurance, you're happy. You got a beautiful wife or a great wife or a great handsome husband and he has a job, you're happy. You got kids and a dog. You got a barbecue pit. You got that big screen TV. Those things bring happiness. But if there's one thing that I know in my life is that all those things, the happiness that you get from any of those things, is transient and fleeting at the very best At the very best. But joy is different. But joy is different.
Speaker 1:Joy has nothing to do with stuff or the condition of things in your life. Joy has a lot to do with the condition and the state of mind, in understanding one big thing that the temptations or the trials and afflictions that you go through, that bring you down, the hardships that bring you down. God gives you a peace that allows you to understand that this is for your benefit. This is the joy that comes from undergoing the discipline of being dealt a hand that you might not think is that great and you're expected to be joyful in it. And what it does? It changes you. It changes you. Count it all joy when you go through trials. Count it joy. It's hard when you think about it because it goes against the natural man. It goes against the natural man's mind.
Speaker 1:The unbeliever can't understand this philosophy. But James says to count it all joy, not if, but when you fall into these various temptations or these trials. And then look at verse 3. In verse 3, he says Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. Notice what he says here.
Speaker 1:After saying my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials and temptations. When you fall into various trials and temptations, he says that when you go through this, he says, when you're going through it, you know this, that the trying of your faith works patience. He tells you clearly in this third verse of the first chapter of James, he says knowing this, go through these trials, count it all joy, but knowing this the trying of your faith works. Patience. Evidence of that is clear evidence that is made. Here is very simple. Here is very simple. It is clear that having faith is part of the requirement of going through the trial.
Speaker 1:Faithfulness is not as some say. It is. You know, some will say, as I said earlier, if you are not, if you're going through a hard time, it's because you have a lack of faith. That's not what James is saying. He says knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. He is saying that these trials, that these trials are testing your faith, enabling you to develop to a higher degree. Patience, it works. Patience. You're learning patience. You're learning to wait, you're learning to endure the troubling thing by counting it all joy.
Speaker 1:Now let me stop here for a second. I want to go around and ask people what do you think so far? Because here's the thing who, when you read this passage, these two verses, counted all joy? When you fall into these temptations, knowing this that the trying of your faith works, patience, who is our prime example? Who is our prime example of one who has patience? Let me start and go around, meg. I'll start with you Opening thoughts. And what are your thoughts about patience and who would you put forth as someone who is a great exhibitor of patience?
Speaker 3:I would say Job is a great exhibitor of patience, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:But like to tonight. I think is is necessary because you know, I always I can honestly say that through my personal trials and tribulations, I counted it joy because man, I, I call it. It's like refining.
Speaker 3:It's like when you're going through something, you get refined and you come out and you're more pure and more beautiful than you were going in you know, and so you know one thing that when, when you were speaking to that, the verse that I thought of was about the thorn in Paul's side, when he says my grace is sufficient for you, but when you are weak, then you are strong, Because my power is made perfect in weakness.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:What do you mean, lord? Your power is made perfect in my weakness. Why? Because when we are weak, we have in in the in in our humanity, have probably exhausted, have probably exhausted everything single thing that we thought that we could do on our own. And see, when we get to that space, we realize, man, god, you're going to be the only one that's going to have to do this. But see, it should really be the opposite, it should be we rest and we just trust the Lord, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen, sister Mariah, what are your thoughts so far?
Speaker 2:It's a much needed topic to be had to examine ourselves in the faith, I would say, and to hold each other accountable. I think that one example, of course, would be Christ, with his unaliving on the cross, showing us patience and long-suffering as well, and it's a hard pill to swallow because a lot of people do have a lot of things going on in their own lives to just take a step back and give what little it is that they do have to someone else, to exhibit that love and maybe reassurance, encouragement and to maybe strengthen their faith in wherever they are in life. So I definitely would lean on our Savior Christ and His example of patience.
Speaker 1:Amen sister Brother Greg, what are your thoughts so far?
Speaker 4:Well, the reason he says to count it all joy is because that's what you have to do. You have to count it as if it's joy because oftentimes it's not. In Hebrews it says no chastening is pleasurable at the moment, but grievous but later. It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are trained thereby. Yep, so sometimes you just got to count it as joy, even though you know they might not feel like it, but it's not joyful at the moment. Yep.
Speaker 1:Yep, Absolutely, Joni. What's your thoughts sister?
Speaker 5:I have a lot of thoughts. You said that you were going to get me this all is so something I've been through. I know it's not something you just go through, but you do have to have a starting point and I'll have to tell you this is my testimony sometime. But it was in 2004 and 2005 when God made my faith, and five when God made my faith. So there was no question in my mind that when something happened, he would be there to care for me and he knew what my future held and that I was going to need to lead on him. And I was told that I was um, that God's strength made my weakness strong and and different things like that. Everything that's being said. It's just like you know, I think one of my favorite verses is in Philippians four Um, and that's the piece that surpasses all understanding.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 5:Like that. That is the truest statement I've ever heard, because people just don't understand where that piece comes from.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because this is one of those things that sometimes I have to be reminded that there are more to our Christian walk than just dealing with some of the things that we often find ourselves discussing and talking about. You know, finding ourselves trying to make good points and trying to prove things that are right and things that are wrong. But this is like I said, this is a layup. This is something that, in terms of people assisting and helping somebody and showing love to other people because this is the one thing that's going to touch every Christian James tells us it's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time. And one brother, nathan, here in the comments. He says something very interesting. He says you better worry if God isn't chasing you. He says something very interesting. He says you better worry if God isn't chasing you. True words, true words. If you're not having trials, you should be concerned Because, he tells us, james tells us that this trial it works in us.
Speaker 1:Patience, it works in us patience. You know what does the world always tell us when we talk about? The Lord is coming back, he's returning and like well, you guys have been saying that for 2000 years now. What evidence is there that he's coming back. The world is bred to be impatient, to be impatient, bread for it. We look at people who you know. There are people who brag about being impatient, who brag about being what's the expression when somebody having a short attention span, they brag about it. But we are expected to exhibit endurance, impatience. I mean impatience to develop patience, and Christ teaches us in his word that the way we get there is by going through these various trials and temptations. Aaron, patrick, what are your thoughts? Brother, aaron, aaron, you there, all right, candy. Oh, go ahead, aaron, go ahead I'm here all right, go ahead, I just want to
Speaker 6:say that man, there's a lot I could touch on this. This was great. Teaching, uh, tribulation, trials, man, right that is. I know god loves me because I've been through it and I go through it, I need it, I need it. I'm just a human man, so he's got to mold me. The Lord chastises whom he loves and I'm just going to tell you, all of you, that in my experience I have grown more with the Lord through the trials. He has molded me into his character through his trials and tribulations, more than the good times.
Speaker 6:And, man, I got to touch on what you said earlier about you know doctrine and arguing against scripture. But when someone needs your help, are you there, right, brother? That was boom, that was light them up and and, and you know, I just I'm the guy that came from the dark side of the tracks that the Lord, I can't believe what he's done in my life, man, right, I cannot believe it. And to hear the encouragement, and I'm just going to tell you you're right, man, you're right on this, that counted all joy, joy, yeah, come on.