Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. — James 1:2-4 (NIV)
You should probably know right off the bat that I’m a widow. My husband, Randy Marshman, died of a surprise heart attack and went home to heaven at age 36 on February 21, 2021. It’s okay if you’re surprised. I’m still getting used to it.
Not so conveniently, my late husband was born on Father’s Day.
Every year, right around Father’s Day, it’s going to be Randy’s birthday. This confluence of holidays isn’t going to get easier for me and my boys, but it is the way it is. One year, not long after Randy died, on the Saturday between Randy’s birthday (Friday), and Father’s Day (Sunday), I was reading through the first chapter of James: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…”
What?! Pure joy?!
I was right in the middle of a trial, and I wouldn’t have immediately thought to consider it pure joy.
What Does ‘Joy in Trials’ Really Mean?
As I thought about that passage, I realized something. James is not saying, “Look at the trial and feel happy.” No! He knows the visceral emotion partnered with trials is sorrow, not joy.
But he says, “Consider it pure joy.” He’s referencing the intensity, not the exclusivity, of the joy. He is not saying, “Have only joy.” He’s saying, “Have the fullness of joy too.”
Intensity, not exclusivity. This is important.
When you suffer — and you’re going to suffer — you’ll change in one of two ways. Either you will become more mature, that is, more able to help and understand other people, or you will become more self-absorbed and obsessed with your problems (which, by the way, is completely human).
I know suffering makes you feel weak, but in truth it has the potential to make you much stronger than any form of success can.
Finding Joy in Trials When Life Feels Heavy
Consider working out at the gym. Let’s imagine doing bicep curls — not saying I do, but let’s pretend we did. What happens is you feel like you’re getting weaker with each curl. With every rep your arms feel more like noodles.
But guess what? The weaker you feel in this moment, the stronger you’re actually becoming. That’s how strength training works. You use resistance to grow.
When you learn endurance through suffering, you initially feel like your faith, patience, and strength are getting weaker. You won’t feel like you’re getting stronger, but you are. And you need that strength to face what’s next.
Fun fact: a butterfly breaks open its cocoon by banging against it with its wings. It only enters the daylight through struggle. But, if it doesn’t break open its own cocoon, it will be too weak to fly. The struggle makes the butterfly stronger.
James urges us to consider trials from a new perspective. First, see the hard. Have sorrow. This has to be the case; we have to be aware of our visceral emotions in trials. Otherwise, we would be something less than human.
The Biblical Meaning of Joy in Trials
When life goes smoothly, it’s easier for me to rely on my own strength. It has been in the painful struggle that I’ve most passionately clung to Christ. The reformer John Calvin said, “The more we are afflicted with adversities, the more surely our fellowship with Christ is confirmed.”
Through our struggles and pain and trials of many kinds, Christ kindly removes the illusion of self-sufficiency and woos us to find intimate fellowship with the One who knows it perfectly and to rely on His body, the Church, which we’ve needed all along.
The Psalms teach us this lesson beautifully and poignantly. They are filled with examples of people realistically facing their suffering with deep faith and worship, through lament and anger.
Worship doesn’t somehow obliterate suffering. Instead, suffering becomes a vehicle for transformative worship, or maybe better, it becomes the sacrifice the psalmist brings in worship. Only then can we consider the trials from another perspective: the fullness of joy — heaven.
Choosing Joy in Trials When Grief Feels Overwhelming
Each time I consider Randy and heaven and Jesus, my perspective shifts. When I think about heaven, I worry less about what people think of me. When I think about heaven, I think of the hope of a day where tears won’t be necessary and death will be no more.
When I think about heaven, I think more of what God values: kindness over comparison, celebration over envy, reconciliation over being right, eternal treasure over material toys, listening over needing to be heard, and love over self-consciousness. When I think about heaven, I start to understand what James says about “not lacking anything.” It’s all going to be there.
Consider a season of trials in your past. Ask God how He has used it to grow you more into His likeness. If nothing comes quickly, don’t look away — look at Him. Even if you don’t have an answer, you have Him.
Heavenly Father, help us to turn to You with our pain. Remind us of who You are as we let perseverance finish its work in us. Make us more like you Jesus. Amen.
“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” — Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)
Join the Relaxed Online Bible Study, starting April 20, 2026 and learn to live more like Jesus — unhurried, unworried, and relaxed.
Adapted from Relaxed: Walking with the One Not Worried About a Thing by Megan Fate Marshman.
We often try to do a lot for God — without him. Relaxed is a call to let go of spiritual performance, reject our cultural tendency to live under pressure, and find freedom to walk with God and toward God, one gentle step at a time.
Plus — get the Relaxed Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video: Letting Go of Self-Reliance and Trusting God. Learn spiritual growth practices for your daily life that remove your own anxious striving and center you on the One who was never worried about a thing.
Relaxed is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.
As an international speaker at churches and conferences, Megan Fate Marshman is a leading voice to this generation. She has devoted her life to loving God and overflowing His transformational love to others. She’s finishing her Doctorate in Ministry as she serves as a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church and the Director of Women’s Ministries at Hume Lake Christian Camps. Megan lives in Southern California and loves adventuring and sharing the love of Jesus with her two boys.
