There was a time back in college when the gym had become sort of a habit to me. I'd go to the gym to work out three to four times a week, and many times when I went—even with a trainer—I was making a lot of mistakes and paying dearly for it.
At one point I was bench pressing about 95 kilograms easily, but one day I decided to take it easy and do 80 kilograms but with more repetitions. As I was getting into my second set, I felt a snap on my arm that hurt terribly. I had torn a large amount of muscles on my right arm, which didn't make sense. My trainer later told me that even if you carry a lesser weight, when you do it wrong it can throw you off badly.
In many ways, our faith can be like our physical muscles: weight and tension make them grow, but only if we apply it in the right way. When we handle and face trials in the right way, we come out stronger, but when we don't, testing can make us cynical and faithless.
So how do we use trials to build and turn us into cynical people? James 1:2–3 tells us, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (ESV). James makes it clear that God wants us to count trials in a certain way, and the way we count it is as joy. The New International Version says it this way: "Consider it pure joy..."
What do we consider to be pure joy? I'm sure many people will answer an easy life, a comfortable-to-ridiculous paycheck or even the absence of suffering and trials. But God tells us to consider it pure joy. It might sound crazy and impossible to think of trials as pure joy, considering the danger they possibly pose for us.
But God promises us that in the moments we are weakest and in moments we are struggling most, that's when He shows up. We all pray and hope for miracles in our lives, but we must realise that miracles can never happen without trial. It is only in trials and challenges that we see just what we are truly made of and how powerful God can move. If everything was easy and nice, we wouldn't be stretched to our maximum potential.
When we consider suffering as a burden and as our impending doom every single time, we become cynical and it breaks our spirits. But when we consider trial as an opportunity to see God's hand move, trial makes us grow.
