All Joy, No Stress: A 5-Day Devotional With Rhett WalkerSample

Change Your Perspective

Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. – James 1:2-4

Let’s be honest. You might hear “All Joy, No Stress” playing on the radio and struggle to relate at times. There are times when we feel far more stress in our lives than joy. None of us wants to experience trials in life. In fact, our prayer lists are typically filled up with requests for God to remove those difficulties from us.

The thing is, neither the song nor these verses are trying to minimize your struggle. In fact, it’s quite the opposite! Both come from a place of empathy, understanding, and acknowledging the tremendous difficulty found in the trials of life. They mean to encourage you in trials, because sometimes the pain and difficulty are so great that it’s hard to find any joy at all.

Have you ever looked at a picture and seen something entirely different than what someone else sees, like the famous illusion called “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law”? Depending on how you look at that picture, you might see a young woman, or you might see an old woman. It’s all in the perspective you take. This same idea of perspective is crucial to the way you view difficulties in life.

If you consider that God uses the hard stuff of life to bring you to a place of greater spiritual maturity, then your attitude about the hard stuff of life suddenly changes. Instead of thinking it’s nothing but meaningless struggle, you begin to see it as having great purpose and value. It’s not that the struggle is gone, but in the struggle, there is joy in knowing God is bringing something good out of it. He loves you and is at work in you—even when you don’t recognize it and can’t see the whole picture.

Reflection

• · What is a situation in your life where you need to take on the perspective of James 1:2-4?
• · What is one step you can take this week to join God in that perspective?
• · Thank God that He doesn’t waste any moment of your life, but uses the good and the bad to increase your faith. Confess the struggle you have in taking that perspective. Invite Him to show you what it means to find great joy in the trials you face.