When we are enduring a trial we need to remember that it isn’t about the suffering it is about what we gain.  WHAT?  What an odd thing to say.  What we gain from the suffering?  "How do we gain anything in suffering" is most likely what you are thinking right now.  I will be honest, I didn’t always think I would gain anything in a trial either-it was a lesson learned through suffering.  Yet it is a lesson I learned-that there is something to be gained in suffering.

If we look at Christ and what He endured for us on the cross, we have to say–it was much suffering!  When we look at Matthew 26:36-46 Christ asks not to endure this suffering.

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

Christ asks the father if the burden that is about to be placed on him can be taken away.  He is deeply troubled, deeply sorrowed, and yet he still tells the father that he will do the fathers will.  He knows what He is about to endure, the pain that will come with it, and He is feeling the human emotions that come with that knowledge.  Those emotions are felt with an intensity we can never feel because they are pure from sin, and yet he still tells the father that He will do the fathers will.  Pain, sorrow, and intense suffering will come from doing the fathers will.  What can come of that?

We know that since Christ was willing to do as the father asked we are able to be forgiven through Gods mercy and grace, because that was the Lord’s plan, for us to once again come into fellowship with Him.  For God that is joy, and for us the only way to experience joy.   So out of terrible suffering, the worst suffering in history, the suffering of Christ, comes the greatest joy.  So if that is the case then how can we say that suffering is worth nothing.  Christ, who would endure the greatest suffering, was willing to follow the father’s will because He knew God’s plan would bring the greatest joy.

The question for us becomes how we find joy in suffering.  If, through the greatest suffering ever there was joy, should there not then be joy in our suffering.  We are told in James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. " (James 1:2-3 )  It isn’t automatic, we must consider it so.  Even for Christ it wasn’t automatic.  He asked to have the cup removed, he had to choose to do the fathers will, choose to follow the father even in suffering, choose to see Gods plan over the suffering.  That is what we must do.  Choose to do the fathers will regardless of our suffering, choose to follow the Lord even in of our trial, and choose to see what the Lord is doing in our life through trials and suffering.  That is when we find joy in trial-when we choose to see what God is doing in and through the suffering, when we focus on Him and what He is doing.

We know God is always molding us on His anvil, He is always doing that even when we are not facing trial, He is consistent in that endeavor.  He is going to mold us into the people He wants us to be.  So what are we gaining in trial that we would otherwise not gain?  Perseverance, and it is possible to gain joy.  That we learn from James 1:2-3 .  Why do we need this perseverance?  And is it really possible to gain joy in a trial?

Maybe we say I don’t want perseverance. If this is what I have to go through to get it I can live without it!  The first part of that answer as to why follows in verse 4 .  We also find out in Hebrews 12:1-2 that we need that perseverance to run the race that we are running.  Perseverance gives us the ability to keep running, to endure the race.  Better yet, we receive what we need as we run, as we are enduring the trial.  God will give us what we need to persevere through it if we ask it of Him.  This we learn from Matt 21:22 .  If we are asking God for things that we know He desires us to have, He will give them to us, and perseverance is one of them.  Along with that He desires for us to experience joy in the trial.

Back to James 1:2, where James tell us to "Consider it all joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (Jam 1:2-3 NIV).  God intends for us to have joy in the trial.  He does not want us to be defeated. If we are getting the very thing God knows we need to run the race and endure it to the end–that is our source of joy in the trial.  God is giving us what we need!  We need to view our race as Paul did when he wrote to the Philippians.  He said "but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14 NIV).  With that goal in mind, we will see that God is giving us what we need to get there, the very thing that we need to endure the race, to make it to the end.

It is not an easy task to view things from that perspective, but with God we can.  We need to be asking Him to give us what we need, asking Him to give us what He desires for us, not what we desire.  For this to happen we need to be spending time with Him in prayer doing what 1 John 5:14 says, asking God for things according to His will, not ours.