A GOD FOR TIMES OF TROUBLE

James 5:13a

INTRODUCTION Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American essayist, once wrote, `We do not live an equal life, but one of contrasts and patchwork; now a little joy, then a sorrow, now a sin, then a generous or brave action.' There is nothing very profound about those words, but they do crystallize for us something we all know to be true and that is that life is never the same for very long. It is seldom a motionless plateau, with nothing happening or changing. Life is full of variety. There are mountain tops and valleys, clouds and sunshine, pain and pleasure, and sometimes they all seem thrown together in hopeless confusion.

Generations of philosophers, teachers, thinkers and leaders of men have wrestled with the problem of how to cope with the changeability of life, with all its triumphs and disasters, yet whatever the distilled wisdom of the ages might say, at the end of the day it is only the Christian who has the ultimate answers, because only the Christian has the resources necessary to cope with the questions. It is these two factors - life's changeability and the Christian's attitude to life - that the down-to-earth James now brings together. There are two obvious parts to what he is saying here and in each of them he describes a condition and then gives counsel as to how Christians should react. By looking carefully at what he has to say we will discover that we truly do have a God for all seasons. God desires for everything that happens to us, from the trivial to the significant, to be seen through the grid of God’s sovereign love toward us in Christ.

I. THE REALITY OF TIMES OF TROUBLE 'Is any one among you suffering? James knows what is going on in the lives of all his hearers. The Greek word is kakopathei, a seldom used word in the Greek New Testament, which in turn is made up of the noun kakos (`evil') and the verb pascho 'to suffer'). It means `to suffer the evil blows of the outside world'; and that would certainly give the perfect picture of what James has in mind here. He is speaking of all of those blows that rain in upon us as Christians as we live out our lives in this alien world whether physical, mental, natural, spiritual-whether it’s persecution, sickness, or accident. Many centuries before James, David wrote, `A righteous man may have many troubles . . .' (Psalm 34:19) and it is surely not difficult to prove the truth of that statement. We have spoken much about suffering in James and the importance, especially in the times we live, of developing a solid and strong biblical theology of suffering. Bad theology dishonors God hurts people. We have been seeing a God-centered view of suffering. Troubles are not mistakes or appendages or meaningless events in our lives but are appointed by God in our lives just as the suffering and death of Jesus were part of God’s plan for our salvation (Isaiah 53:10;Acts 4;27-28). James says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing…blessed is the man who endures trial” (James 1:2,-4, 12). Paul says that suffering is a grace from God, For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake (Philippians 1:29). Twice Peter spoke of suffering being God’s will,” For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil…Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” ( 1 Peter 3:17; 4:19). James has placed all of our life, including the seeming interruptions, inconveniences, hindrances, difficulties, hardships to how we think life should be, under the sovereign will of God: “Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"…Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."”(James 4:13, 15). The trouble that His children meet is not something unforeseen by the Lord. He saw it clearly, embraced it Himself, and sent us, His disciples, into the same danger. “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Luke 11:49). As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 3:3, we are “destined” or “appointed” for such things. God wills that the mission of the church advance through storm and suffering. So we as Christians are meant expect and accept storms. The introductory apostolic lesson, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22), is for us, a settled commonplace. Life is not always trouble; we surely have pleasant moments in our lives that we can accept with gratitude. But we cannot use it to argue that the next moment should also be pleasant. Life is full of so many changes. Sickness and health, growth and decline, praise and criticism, friendship and betrayal, gratitude and neglect, wealth and want, pressure and ease, excitement and boredom, war and peace, fear and security, clarity and confusion, harmony and tension, weariness and energy, doubt and certainty. The Swedish hymn writer Karolina W. Sandell-Berg understood this when she wrote: He whose heart is kind beyond all measure gives unto each day what He deems best—Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.”

The examples of those who understood this and their faithful, persevering suffering could be multiplied from the glorious history of God's faithful saints! William Carey sailed to India from England in 1793. He lost his five-year-old Son, his wife became mentally ill, he labored seven years for his first convert, and he lost years' worth of precious translation work in a fire. But still he pressed on-for forty years without a furlough. Adoniram Judson, "America's first foreign missionary," went to Burma in 1814. He lost a six-month-old baby boy, spent a year and a half in a "death prison," lost his wife from fever, suffered a mental breakdown, and waited five years for his first convert. Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to go to China (in 1807), lost his young wife and worked seven years for his first convert. What did these great Christians do in suffering and what does James encourage us all to do?

II. JAMES COUNSEL `Let him pray.' If you’re going through trials of any sort, James’ answer is like a rifle shot to the bull’s eye: “Pray.” In the original Greek it is just one word – proseuchestho, literally pray!” The present tense of the word suggests pray, pray, and keep on praying! The lesson hidden in all of this is that in the storms of life, prayer should be the Christian's first resort. It’s easy to sit here and nod in agreement, but the question is, “When you encounter difficulties, is prayer your first response?” It’s certainly not the automatic response. If left to the flesh, the automatic response to suffering is to grumble or complain or to throw a pity party, or we question God: “Why is this happening to me?” But James counters all this with the single word: “Pray!” When you get into a conflict with your wife or children, do you shoot up a prayer for wisdom and a calm spirit? Do you pray that you will be an example of godliness to your family? Do you

ask God to check your anger? Do you pray that each family member would grow in Christ through the difficulty? I could go on an on. In every situation of life, God sends problems so that we will learn to depend on Him in prayer. We often pray as the last resort, after we’ve done everything that we can do to try to fix the problem. We scheme, we plan, we work hard, and then maybe we remember to pray, “God, bless my efforts.” You can do more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you shouldn’t do anything until you’ve prayed. Prayer acknowledges that you are totally dependent on God. Prayer is a renouncement of my self-sufficiency. How often do we live our lives trusting in our wisdom and experience? There is a challenge so I reach into my memory and look into solutions. There is a problem that needs solving so I look within for answers. Whether planning a day or balancing a budget-some of us tend only to pray as a desperate last resort (If even then!). That is because we think that we have in hand all that we need to accomplish things. That is self-sufficiency! Self-sufficiency shows up in my anxiety, frantic pace, acting as if it all depends upon me. In some of our strengths we are atheists. We do not pray because we do not think that we need to. God is so kind to us. He sends us troubles all the time to remind us that we need Him. Prayer admits, “Lord, I can’t even draw my next breath without You. If You don’t work for Your purpose and glory, my most competent efforts will fail!” When you encounter suffering, what should you pray? Don’t answer too quickly! We often assume that we should pray, “Lord, get me out of here now or heal me now! (Both of which are biblical). But, maybe God has other purposes for this trial. Remember Paul in his suffering in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9? “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. (This is part of prayer). But He said to me, ‘M y grace is sufficient, for my power is made perfect in your weakness”. Paul prayed, God answered with a no and a yes. The issue is, will you come to Me and value the magnifying power of Christ over a pain free life? Is the person living under the lordship of Christ? So, when you or someone you love encounters a trial, pray for wisdom (James 1:5 in context). Pray for the ability to endure with joy. Pray for a godly attitude through the pain. Pray that the works of God may be displayed in this trial (John 9:3). Pray that God would use this crisis for His purpose and glory (John 11:4). Pray that the fruit of the Spirit would grow in the lives of everyone involved (Gal. 5:22-23).

Listen to David as he speaks of some of the troubles he has known in his own life in Psalm 18:4-5, “The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. “Then comes the turning-point: `In my distress I called to the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice; and my cry to Him reached ears' (Psalm 18:6) Now read on through the rest of that psalm and you will discover that it is almost entirely given over to the marvelous outcome of that prayer: “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. …the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me. `He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of the deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me” (Psalm 18:16-18); the whole psalm is a glorious affirmation that God is personally and practically involved in the troubles of his people. This means that God is personally and practically involved in your troubles dear Christian! The same truth shines through elsewhere in Scripture, too. After Israel had endured over 400 years of slavery, God told Moses, `I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering' (Exodus 3:7). Do you believe this dear Christian?

I have seen a spiritual paralysis come upon too many Christians when trouble comes. You know how paralysis works physically? When a part of a person’s physical body is paralyzed, a person may have commendable ambitions, but often to little avail. The common frustration of paralytics is that they feel trapped by an inability to do with their bodies what their minds visualize and what their hearts desire. Future options seem greatly limited. In the same way, spiritual paralysis is the disability of Christians caught up in defeat, fear, anxiety, discouragement, and despair. One of the most pervasive manifestations of spiritual paralysis is prayerlessness. It rises from our unbelief, our busyness, prideful self-reliance, biblical ignorance, unreasonable expectations, failures, and disappointments. Most of all, prayerlessness is evidence of a lack of vision of the glory, greatness, sufficiency, power, and majesty of Christ. It bears witness to a shriveled up loss of a sense of His supremacy. No believer is moved to pray who has lost a vision of Christ’s infinite sufficiency and His loving and purposeful involvement in the totality of our lives, including our troubles. No believer prays when crippled by impoverished understandings of Christ’s claims. Who prays if he or she assumes that circumstances, people, problems, and situations are beyond experiencing divine help? For all practical purposes, prayerlessness is like slamming the door on the face of Jesus. When we reject the possibility that God is ready, able, and willing to act and help supernaturally and extraordinarily on behalf of those who call upon His name, we function less like apostles and more like agnostics! Think of it dear saints: Christian agnosticism. It is the attitude of the believer who lacks the faith and courage to believe; who have disqualified themselves from experiencing a Redeemer who accomplishes in them and for them that which is exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that they ask and imagine by His great power at work within them! (Ephesians 3:14).

Oh Christian are you in trouble this morning? Has your faith been paralyzed? Then I offer to you this morning a fresh vision of a God who is breathtaking, powerful, sufficient, merciful, sovereign, holy, gracious, loving, and infinitely beautiful! A God who desires for you to see Him, know Him, and treasure Him above all things. He is a God of comfort, who “comforts us in our afflictions” (2 Cor.1:3-4). He is a God who comes alongside to give you help. God wills that you pray. He wills that you ask him for things. And not just wills it, but really delights in it and really wants it and takes steps to see that it happens, because he enjoys it so much. It makes us the beneficiaries and dependent upon His all sufficient sufficiency and brings him great glory as the giver and us great joy as the receiver! He promised the psalmist: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:15). No wonder the writer of Hebrews gives us this great exhortation of what to do when we are in trouble: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Peter tells us that, “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer” (I Peter 3:12). What a wonderful encouragement all of this is! God is looking, God is listening and God is longing to help us in our troubles, to deliver his people from their troubles, longing to bless them, guide them, strengthen them, and comfort them. Days of darkness in our lives are no more an indication that God is absent than clouds indicate that the sun has left the sky and, there is no time when God does not invite us to Himself! No wonder James counsel to the Christian facing trouble of any kind is so direct: `Let him pray'!

CLOSING THOUGHTS In 1924 two climbers by the name of Mallory and Irvine were members of an expedition that set out to conquer Mount Everest. Both were lost and after the failure of the expedition the party returned home to England. Addressing a meeting in London, one of the survivors described the ill-fated venture, and then turned to a huge photograph of Mount Everest mounted on the wall behind him. `Everest,' he cried, `we tried to conquer you once, but you overpowered us. We tried to conquer you a second time, but again you were too much for us. But Everest, I want you to know that we are going to conquer you, for you can't grow any bigger, and we can!' Do you see a spiritual parallel? There is a sense in which our afflictions can never grow any bigger. They can certainly never grow any bigger than God allows. But by the grace of God we can `grow bigger'. We can `grow bigger' by the power of prayer. Isaiah tells us that `Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength' (Isaiah 40:31). Our problems can be faced; our mountains can be climbed. We can say to the Everest’s we face, `You can't grow any bigger, but I can,' and we can do so as we lay hold of God's power. Joseph Scriven's well-known words are exactly to the point: Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged: Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows, share? Jesus knows our every weakness: Take it to the Lord in prayer.