Trial Training

Principles found in the natural world often correlate to the spiritual world. Jesus revealed this through parables like the parable of the sower, the tares and wheat, and his reference to the leaven of the Pharisees. Principles in the natural world often have parallel spiritual realities. This applies in the area of strength training. How we develop and build strength physically parallels how we grow spiritually stronger. Knowing this helps us understand James 1:2-4 a little better.

The wording of that passage can be troubling. We read, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” That sounds a little out there at first. How could we legitimately “count it all joy” when confronted with trials, some of them horrific. We’re tempted to chalk up James’ use of ‘joy’ to hyperbole and say that he didn’t literally mean to find joy. Maye he just meant we shouldn’t let trials get us down too much. However, I don’t believe we need to go there, nor should we. When we recognize the correlation between physical growth in strength and spiritual growth, we can understand him literally and “Count it all joy.”

First, let’s look at the role of trials in the life of a disciple of Jesus. Jesus never promised us a life free of trials. To the contrary, he said, “In this world you will have trouble.” Trials will come, but God uses trials to develop endurance, which develops character, and ultimately produces hope that finds its rest in God. Paul expresses this in Romans 5:2-5, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

This term ‘endurance’ isn’t merely patience like waiting for your order in the drive-thru line. It involves holding true to God and His promises amid suffering, injustice, and hardship stemming from a broken world. We may be confronted with sickness, attacks from people, economic hardship, natural disasters, etc. All of these are trials that a believer may experience. But each of those becomes an opportunity to grow in endurance, character, and hope—hope grounded in a God who loves us beyond measure. We have the opportunity to put our faith to the test. Will we trust that God loves us and is in control even when circumstances may tempt us to question that? Will we lean into His word and the body of Christ to endure the trials we face? When we do we grow in our faith and experience the faithfulness of God at a deeper level. We grow spiritually stronger.

Now here is the physical parallel. Any elite athlete who develops himself or herself physically will do workouts that are hard and difficult. Their workouts will push them to the limit, often to the point of failure where they need help to finish the last rep. Some in the fitness world use the phrase “feel the burn” to emphasize a workout's intensity and taxing nature on the muscles. Any growth in strength and physical development will require hard, uncomfortable workouts. The type of workouts can vary from weight training, band training, bodyweight training, etc. Regardless of the type of workout, you must have an intensity and resistance that taxes your muscles. If you are content with any easy workout that requires little to no effort and no physical exhaustion, then you will never make progress in your physical fitness. Athletes not only engage in tough workouts, they celebrate them because they know hard workouts contribute to their growth in physical strength and ability.

We can approach trials in life with that same mindset. Trials, as hard and painful as they may be, allow us to develop endurance, character, and hope. Without trials, I don’t believe we can fully grow as God desires. It's like doing a workout without any resistance. We may go through some spiritual motions but without the resistance of trials, our faith remains untested. We may be able to grow in intellectual knowledge without trials, but we can’t grow in endurance, character, or hope in God. Trials, like tough resistance training, develop our endurance and build our character. Ultimately, they produce in us a sure hope in the God who has poured out His love in us through His Holy Spirit. When you and I understand trials in this way, we can embrace James’ words, “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” (HCS)

How are you approaching your current trial? How will you approach your next trial? Will you dread it and get angry about it or will you look at it and say, “This is going to be hard and it may even hurt, but I’m going to face this head-on, knowing that I can grow spiritually through this.” Trial training is not easy or comfortable but it does produce results.

Spiritual strength comes through trial training.