How To Be Joyful In Difficulty | Count It All Joy In Phoenix, Arizona

Hey, everybody, this is Myron golden coming to you live from Phoenix, Arizona. That's right. I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, believe it or not. And the reason I'm here is my wife and I, we were on our 32nd anniversary trip to Canada. We were in Canada at the Banff Springs Hotel. If you ever have an opportunity to go to Banff, you definitely want to go to the Banff Springs Hotel. And just getting back. We're on our way back from Canada, and we get to the airport in Phoenix to make our connection flight, and we get to the gate, wait there for about 30, 40 minutes, and guess what? You guessed it, our flight got canceled. So I'm just putting it on. Put it. Want to put it all in perspective. First of all, thank you to all of the people who reached out to us saying, hey, want to make sure you're okay. We're okay. My son's at home by himself right now, but he's gonna be leaving in the morning. I don't really think the hurricane is gonna do too much damage in Tampa. I could be wrong, but if it does the damage, worrying about it's not gonna make it any better, so. Hey, Marsha. How you doing, sister? Good to see you. And so I'm just not gonna get all bent out of shape about it. However, it's really interesting to watch the dynamics of people as they began to find out the professional flight was canceled and to see the dynamics of the people who were working in the airport. And, like, I'm. I'm not going to be able to get back home. The airport in Tampa is not going to open back up until, I think, Tuesday. So maybe. Tuesday, maybe. Right. So it was just really interesting to see people really getting frustrated and been out of shape and irritated and sad and scared and crying and just all kinds of responses. And. And I get that. I get it. It's. It's our human nature to. It's our human nature to expect the worst in difficult times. But one of the things we have to do is we have to overcome human nature and that. That natural inclination to expect the worst, and we have to learn how to expect the best. And then we have to put it in perspective. You know, a lot of people down in Texas recently have lost their homes. They've lost their cars. They've lost.

You know, their furniture. They've lost every material possession they have. Some people have even lost their lives, lost loved ones. And, you know, we need to really keep those people in our prayers as well as to be reminded that life is way too short not to love the people you love. Life is way too short not to demonstrate to the people that you care about how much you care about them. Life is too way too short for that. And then life is way too long to be miserable, right? Life is way too long to be miserable. So, and I guess the reap. What I'm talking about right now is the fact that, you know, I'm here in Phoenix, Arizona. I can't get home till Tuesday, and which is an inconvenience to say the least. I'm not going to pretend that, you know, I don't mind at all. I really would love staying in Phoenix for four more days, right? And can't get to my house. But the reality is I'm in Phoenix. If I got been out of shape about it, it wouldn't change the fact I'd still be in Phoenix, right? And it reminds me of a passage of scripture, and it reminds me of a passage of scripture in James, chapter one, and where it says, my brethren, count it all, joy when you fall into diverse temptations, when you fall into different kinds of trials, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing or lacking nothing. And so I was thinking about that today, and, you know, how can I be joyful while I'm stuck in Phoenix?

And if you don't know where Phoenix is, Phoenix is the oven of the United States, right? So it's, it's like, it's crazy. Like, people talk about Florida being hot. Florida's not even hot in my opinion, compared to Phoenix. You know, Texas being hot. Texas is hot, but it ain't hot compared to Phoenix, right? So anyway, so we're here in Phoenix. We can't get home until Tuesday. And then I'm scheduled to leave Wednesday for.

For a.

For a trip to Boise, Idaho. And it's just. And I'm not even gonna get home until Tuesday night now. But that's okay. And here's, here's what I was telling you. I wanted to just share with you regardless of where you are. You know, I just got a text from my brother Dwayne. He was actually in Mexico, in Mexico City when the earthquake hit in Mexico. And he said he had to. He had to run down 20 flights of stairs because you don't want to get on an elevator if there's an earthquake, right? He had to run down 20 flights of stairs and then rush his team to the airport to get them out of There. And I, I don't even know if he's still in Mexico or if he's, if he's back in Florida, if he's on his way to Florida. I don't even know where he's at right now. So. But all of that in perspective to say this, you know the highways. If you find yourself on the highway attempting to evacuate Florida and you feel stuck, you feel frustrated because why is this happening to me? My brethren count it all, joy when. Notice it didn't say if you fall into diverse temptations. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Knowing this, the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have a perfect work. So just going to share with you my thoughts on that really quickly. Like while I'm in one of those situations where we as human beings don't like to find ourselves. Right. So I'm just going to share with you really quickly some thoughts that maybe will help you if you find yourself in this situation or if you right now are in a situation like I'm in, or maybe even worse than I'm in. Right.

And that is. It says, my brethren counted all joy.

When you fall in diverse temptations. So the, the first word we want to focus on there is the word count, right? What does that mean? Well, count is a word that means to us to assign a value or to assign a meaning to. So when it says count it all joy, it doesn't mean when, when. When things are not going the way you'd like them to go, to pretend. Oh, I just love it when I. That's not what it's saying. What it's saying is when you find yourself in a trial, give it a definition that can cause you to rejoice. For instance, I'm not going back to. I'm not going back to.

Tampa until Tuesday, when I was expecting to get back to Tampa tonight. Right? And I've got a lot of work to do in Tampa, right, before I leave again to go to somewhere else. Well, I can count it all, joy, because even though I'm not in Tampa, I'm safe. I'm not in Tampa, but at least my wife is with me. I'm not in t. I'm not in Phoenix by myself, right? So I, I can find something in the situation that I'm in to rejoice about. I'm. I'm alive, right? I've got my health, I've got my strength. I've got my right mind as much as my right mind as I can have right so there's always something we can find. The word count is a perspective word. Here's what the scriptures tell us. It tells us when you find yourself in difficult situations, have the right perspective. That's what, that's what it's saying. But it says count it all joy knowing this. See, count is a perspective word, but knowing is a perception word. So the only way you can count, the way you're supposed to count.

Is if you know what you're supposed to know.

Did you pick that up? So it says count it all joy when this happens, knowing that something else is going to happen. So the only way you can ever get to the place in your life where you count the way you're supposed to count is by knowing what you're supposed to know. And the reason people get bent out of shape, whether it be me or somebody else, irritated, frustrated, anything other than fascinated. The reason we get bent out of shape is because we don't know what we need to know in order not to get frustrated. You say, myron, what do you mean? Well, here's what I know. It says, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. The word patience there means persistent, consistent endurance. So here's what the scripture says. When you fall into diverse temptations, different kinds of trials, count it joy. Because when you're tried, that trying of your faith is going to create persistent, consistent endurance in your life. It's going to make you stronger. So if I can just kind of put it in a phraseology that will help you while you're in this situation. Hey Patsy Jean, I just saw my beautiful mother in law jump on. So when you find yourself in this situation, in a situation that's undesirable, a situation that's trying, a situation that's a trial. Instead of fussing and cussing and stomping and, you know, kicking and moaning and snorting, why not just say, hmm, I wonder what God wants me to get from this. See, the problem is God has ordained that we go through trials so that we can get something from the trial. Unfortunately for us, when we find ourselves in a trial, we're more often interested in getting out of the trial than we are in getting from the trial what God desires for us to get from the trial. And so I want you to understand that God has a lesson for you in this testing that you're going through. So understand that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Here's what that means. That means that.

When you go through a trial, God is getting you ready for something that he already has ready for you.

So how can I be joyful? Because I love trials. I don't love trials. I don't love Phoenix. I don't love when the airport in my hometown closes down and then I can't get home. I don't like that. Right? I'm now in a hotel, you know, I've got to get a hotel room for tonight and tomorrow night and Sunday night and Monday night in Phoenix, Arizona. So I could be. I guess I could be bent out of shape about that, but I'm not bent out of shape about that. Not that that makes me the example, but fortunately, by the grace of God, I was aware enough not to allow myself to get frustrated, not even a half an ounce of frustration through this situation. Nobody can do anything about it. So what can I do? I can count it all, Joy. I can rejoice in the fact that God is getting me ready for something that he already has ready for me. I don't know what that is, but I don't have to know what it is. Why? Because he knows what it is. And then the last thing that I want to say is, it says this. So it says, but let Patience have her perfect work. What does that mean? Let the trial do the thing that God ordained the trial for your life to do. Don't resist it. Don't fight it. Don't. Don't get angry about it. Don't get frustrated about it. Embrace it. Embrace your trial because. Not because you love trials, but because you know that God is getting you ready for what he already has ready for you. And then resolve yourself to stay in the trial until God has determined that you've gotten from it, what you deserve, what you need to get from it, so that. So that you can now be strong enough to do the work that he has for you to do, that you were not strong enough to do before you had that trial. That's why it says, but let Patience have her perfect work. As soon as we get in a trial, dear God, deliver me from this trial. Okay? God said, I just delivered you to that trial. That trial's not done working on you yet. So all of that to say this, I know that there are millions, literally millions of people right now across the United States that are displaced, probably thousands or maybe even millions more. In Mexico City, it's one of the largest cities in the world. They just had an earthquake. Millions of people are displaced. They're finding themselves somewhere other than where they'd rather be. But instead of focusing on what you don't have while you're in that situation. Count it all, Joy. That's the perspective. Be thankful for the things you have more than you are frustrated about the things you don't have. Count it all, Joy. Have the right perspective.

Because you have the right perception and then that will work patience in your life. So hopefully that helps somebody. I'm in Phoenix, Arizona by the way. There is a pastor in Phoenix, Arizona that called me and wanted me to come and speak at your church.