I Hate This. And It's Healing Me. (Why James Says Choose Joy)

Hardships will come. Choose joy. Easy to say. Terrible advice if you don't understand what James actually means. James isn't telling you to feel happy when your life falls apart. He's saying something far greater: that the very thing you hate might be the thing God is using to make you whole. In this message, we continue our study of the Letter of James — likely the earliest writing in the New Testament. James picks up three themes he'll develop across the entire letter: how you suffer, how you talk, and what your relationship with money says about you. But the one he starts with — the one he thinks everything else depends on — is what hardship is doing to you. So what is it doing to you? And why does James think you should call it joy? If you've ever been in a season of suffering and wondered whether God forgot about you — or worse, whether he even likes you — this message is for you. Download the group sermon discussion guide here.