One person asked on Reddit's r/Christianity, "When the Bible says for us to count it all joy, does that mean we should be joyful for the trial itself?" A reply in that Reddit thread: "During my own trials, no, I'm not particularly joyful." Another person on Reddit wrote of a season turning all at once: "Then after last night, everything has just been tumbling down, it's something bad after something bad." The passage Bible Nudge offers sits inside the very paragraph those words about joy come from. It is James 1:5, and it is an invitation to ask.
If you only have a minute
Read tonight
James 1:5, one line about asking God for wisdom.
What it gives
Room to bring your question as it is, to a God described as giving "without reproach".
One thing to do
Answer in a line: what is the clearest question you can bring to God right now?
James 1:5, in the middle of James's words about trials
In the World English Bible (WEB), the translation this site uses, verses 2 to 5 read:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
In the same breath as the hard words about joy, James tells the person who does not know how to get through this to ask. He describes God as giving "liberally and without reproach", which leaves room to bring the question exactly as it is, whatever you feel about the trial. Tonight, read verse 5 once, slowly, and answer one question in a single line: what is the clearest question you can bring to God right now? Doubting God reads it with the verses after it.
One line, read once, is enough for tonight.
What "count it all joy" may be asking
GotQuestions, an evangelical site, says James "encourages his readers to evaluate the way they look at trials." David Guzik at Enduring Word, an evangelical commentary, writes, "James regarded trials as inevitable." James gives his own reason: "knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." Commentators differ on what it asks of your feelings, and the Reddit poster's question is fair to carry. A few verses on, James blesses somebody still standing under the weight:
Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
Why some Bibles say "temptations"
The Greek noun at James 1:2 and 1:12 is peirasmos, which Thayer's lexicon defines as "an experiment, attempt, trial, proving". The WEB and the King James Version both say "temptations" at 1:2. At 1:13 James uses the related verb to separate God from the pull toward wrongdoing: "Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God,’ for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one." The Catholic Catechism draws a similar line: "The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death" (2847). The Orthodox Church in America reads "lead us not into temptation" in the Lord's Prayer as asking to be kept from being overcome by sin.
"Is God testing me?"
The same Reddit poster wrote, "All I could think of is that God is punishing me or maybe guiding me." Genesis 22:1 opens Abraham's story: "After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ He said, ‘Here I am.’" (the King James Version reads "did tempt"). In Deuteronomy 8:2, Moses tells Israel its forty years in the wilderness were "to prove you, to know what was in your heart." If you have been told it is your fault, that section reads Job's friends.
First Peter, written to people in the middle of it
The letter goes to Christians "living as foreigners" in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. Verse 6 of chapter 1 names the grief: "Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials," and verse 7 speaks of faith "tested by fire". Rejoicing and grief share one sentence; you can hold both. Later, 4:12 says, "don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you."
Some of this gets read in a hospital car park.
Gold and fire
Job, who looks east and west and cannot find God, still says, "But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold." Those are words for feeling God is absent and still holding on. Psalm 66 praises God from the far side of testing: "You have refined us, as silver is refined," and "We went through fire and through water, but you brought us to the place of abundance." In Isaiah 43:2 God speaks to Jacob, called by name: "When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you." That is company for tonight. The refiner in Malachi 3:3 purifies the sons of Levi; Zechariah 13:9 refines a surviving third. The page on stress reads Paul's "pressed on every side".
Romans 5, and love poured out
Paul writes to people "justified by faith" who have "peace with God":
Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
The sequence ends in God's love "poured out", something to hold tonight. What the Bible says about suffering reads Romans 5 beside James and 1 Peter.
"It will make you stronger," and "more than you can handle"
Tedeschi and Calhoun describe post-traumatic growth as "positive psychological change experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances." Zoellner and Maercker write that self-perceived growth "may not necessarily reflect actual growth", and Frazier and colleagues found reported growth and measured change did not consistently match. For simply getting through, the American Psychological Association calls resilience "the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences." The Reddit poster who asked about joy wanted to get to "really living and not just existing as a believer", a question many carry.
Someone else asked on Reddit, "Where did we get the unbiblical slogan that God won't give us more than we can bear?" and added, "It was more than I could bear." Those words are not a verse. The nearest is 1 Corinthians 10:13, where Paul warns the Corinthians about idolatry and grumbling, using Israel's story:
No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
It names God as faithful, with a way through alongside the pressure. What not to say to someone grieving reads it as the source of the saying. A Reddit poster who had stage 4 cancer heard "It happened for a reason" and wrote, "I don't like when people tell me this." Another wrote on Reddit, "I heard this all the time in church but I’ve never had the guts to ask my pastor about it." This page is a place to ask it.
When it comes several at once
One person wrote on Reddit, "My mother repeats this almost every day since my father passed away and we became poor." A commenter in that thread wrote, "my fiance also left me and my father disowned me." For one weight in particular: cancer caregivers, dementia caregivers, loneliness in marriage, and patience, which reads the farmer in James 5.
The King James wording
- James 1:2-3: "count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."
- James 1:5: "let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not"
- James 1:12: "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation"
- 1 Peter 1:6: "ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations"
- Romans 5:3: "we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience"
- 1 Corinthians 10:13: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able"
When a long season needs more than reading
The UK's NHS says "It's important to seek help from a GP if you think you may be depressed" (a GP is a family doctor). In the US, Mayo Clinic says to see a provider if symptoms cause distress or disrupt daily life. Pargament and colleagues named "punishing God reappraisals" among patterns of negative religious coping, and Braam and colleagues found such patterns associated with depressive symptoms. If the thought that God is punishing you will not lift, talk it through with a doctor and with a pastor or priest you trust.
If you are thinking of ending your life, reach a person tonight. In the United States, call or text 988. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Samaritans is on 116 123. In Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14. Anywhere else, Find A Helpline lists lines by country.
Questions people ask
Is the "fiery trial" in 1 Peter about illness? Benson's commentary calls it "the grievous persecution" they were suffering, and the ESV Global Study Bible says "they should expect persecution." Its words can still keep you company.
Do "patience" and "endurance" mean different things? The KJV's "patience" and the WEB's "endurance" at James 1:3-4 translate the same Greek word.
How could a group read this? Read James 1:2-12 in one sitting with 1 Peter 1:3-9 beside it, and ask one another the question above.
Where to go next
Tonight, read James 1:5 with the verses around it once, and answer the question in a line. For anything else, Bible Nudge takes a line in your own words and returns one passage with what surrounds it. Find a passage.
Words that come up here
Tap a term to see what it means.
Peirasmos. The Greek word at James 1:2, meaning a trial or a temptation.