Are you facing joyful circumstances today?

Or do you call them trials?

James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Some versions say consider it all joy. You are not called to be happy in these trials, just joyful. Joy is a choice not a feeling. Happy is a feeling. You have the ability to be joyful and unhappy at the same time. They are not the same thing.

As you begin to look at your circumstances from God's perspective, you will come to understand that these multiple problems are testing your faith. This is both an opportunity to strengthen your faith and a temptation to let your feelings over take your faith. What will you choose?

One of the hardest things about trials is not knowing how long they will last. You can't control the duration. All you can do is live with them indefinitely. At times you feel you can't go on another moment. That is when you most need to ask God for His joy in this circumstance.

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, " With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Hebrews 12:11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.