Emotional Baggage

Consider It Pure Joy, My Brothers, Whenever You Face Trials Of Many Kinds. James 1:2

This was what I came across in my daily bible study book. I do the days study, but I also skip around. And I always find what I need to be reminded of. Thank you God!

It is God's command to consider "every trial to be a thing of joy". Initially, that seems unreasonable because trials do not feel joyous. If we are to respond constructively, we must understand that the text does not tell us to "feel it a thing of joy". For that can we be thankful, since it is impossible for us to manipulate our emotions. Emotions are a result of circumstances, body chemistry, how we have slept, what we have dreamed, or even what we may have eaten the night before. None of us have a joy button that we press to make us feel wonderful. Although we are usually able to keep our emotions in check, it is impossible to change them dramatically. Emotions are the baggage that comes with our difficulty. The emotions that swirl in our hearts are legitimate and normal. We should not feel guilty about feeling down. Even Jesus wept (John 11:35) What we must do, however, is refuse to permit how we feel to dictate how we respond. If you have traveled through the mountains, you may have seen ramps for runaway trucks. They are for drivers who have lost their brakes and are careening dangerously down the road, out of control. At that point, trucks are driven by the weight of their baggage. It's a disaster waiting to happen. Letting our emotions dictate our actions is like letting the baggage do the driving. This is why James said to count it a "joy" thing "because you know...(James 1:3). We can reckon trials as a source of joy when we know that God is working in it for our own good, that trials will refine us, that they will be used to accomplish good results that would not happen otherwise. Responding to trouble based on what we know to be true is the only way to keep life on the road toward God's productive purposes. When we do this we can count any difficulty to ultimately be a thing of joy.