Some Thoughts on Suffering, Joy, and Transformation

At church we are working through a 12 week sermon series in James. Yesterday, I preached from James 1:2-11 - an incredible text, where we, as followers of Christ, are challenged (literally commanded) to respond to hardship, adversity, and suffering with pure joy.  The main idea I tried to communicate yesterday is that we should respond to hardship and suffering with joy, because God uses trials to increase our capacity for Him and transform us spiritually.  As I was preparing to preach last week, I came across several great thoughts on joy, transformation, and a Gospel-centered response to suffering - 

• On the nature of true joy:

Joy is a settled contentment in every situation, or an unnatural reaction of deep, steady, unadulterated and thankful trust in God.   - Derek Tidball

Joy is a pervasive sense of well being.  It is not the same as pleasure, though it is pleasant.  It is deeper and broader than any pleasure. Pleasure and pain are always specific to some particular object or condition, such as eating something you really like (pleasure) or recalling some really foolish thing you did (pain).  But for joy, all is well, even in the midst of suffering and loss.  - Dallas Willard

• On spiritual transformation:

All change comes from deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out of the changes that understanding creates in your heart.  Faith in the gospel restructures our motivation, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world.  Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting.        - Tim Keller

• A gospel-centered response to suffering:

The goal of the gospel is not the gifts that God gives, but rather, God as the gift given to us by grace.  The gospel sees hardship in life as sanctifying affliction that reminds us of Jesus' sufferings and is used by God in love to make us more like Jesus.  - Mark Driscoll

I am so excited to see how the Holy Spirit might possibly use this sermon series from James to further transform the hearts, minds, and lives of our people, their pastors, their neighborhoods, and our community for God's greater glory and for our greater good.