Is it all really joy?

If you're like me there are times when caught up in God-ordained trial (yes, that would be every trial) that it was difficult to count it as a joy. 

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. James 1:2

But the testing is meant to purify.  And if our Savior learned obedience through suffering, how much more do we I need to endure a fair bit of suffering? (Ouch)

"Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." Hebrews 5:8

For if he had only known obedience, though never so perfectly, in the notion of it, what relief could have accrued unto us thereby? how could it have been a spring of pity or compassion towards us? But now, whereas he himself took in his own person a full experience of the nature of that especial obedience which is yielded to God in a suffering condition, what difficulty it is attended withal, what opposition is made unto it, how great an exercise of grace is required in it, he is constantly ready to give us relief, as the matter doth require. -John Owen

So if you are in the middle of a trial right now take heart and remember:

• Christ suffered more than you will ever suffer
• God is Sovereign over all things and He oversees and ordains all that occurs in our lives
• A heart that can praise God in the "storm" pleases God
• The punishment we truly deserve is much greater than we can even imagine

James 1:3-4 continues on to say:

Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

"We so often want to view our hardships as nothing but an obstacle toward growth and maturation.  However, the trials we experience are from the hand of God and are working to produce steadfastness leading to maturity." (Count it All Joy by Scott Devor in Tabletalk Magazine, October 2011)