James 1:2,3 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." But how can it create patience in our lives? And he goes on to say, "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." So are we to stay in the trial? Are we not to seek the way out? Are we to walk through valley of the shadow of death? Why doesn't the Lord just lift us out of it? So that patience may have her complete work. If we don't stay in the trial and yield to God in the trial, then the work being done by patience may be birthed prematurely. That is an appropriate word. For the word complete in the Greek, is teleion. This means complete, perfect or mature. So if we do not, hupomenoi, remain up under the work that God is doing in our lives then that work will not be mature, and therefore we will not be mature.

How do we manage to remain in the trial in a way that will allow patience to have her complete and perfect work? We need to decide what we are going to yield to. Do we yield to the pressure of the trial? Or do we yield to the presence of the Most High?

1 Peter 4:12-14, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified."

Not exactly what we think of when we think that we are blessed and should rejoice, huh? But Peter says that we should rejoice in the fiery trial. Paul tells us several times to rejoice in our trials. And, as we see above, James says to 'count it all joy'. Why on earth would they say that? They had learned to yield to the presence not the pressure.

In Philippians 4:11-13, Paul says, "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

See Paul had learned to be, autarkes, content or happy whether he was able to stuff himself with food, or if he was to starve. Whether he had everything that he could desire, or had nothing whatsoever. How? In his own words, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." He had learned that it is the presence of Christ in our lives that, endunamounti, continuously empowers us. So this is not a one time thing. We don't get saved and then we have all the power we will ever need. Nor do we get baptized in the Holy Ghost and have all the power we will ever need. No, we need to be continuously in His presence so that He can continuously give us the power we need to "let patience have her perfect work".

Let us look at an example of a common person who yielded to the presence and not the pressure. "And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living." (Mark 12:41-44)

Here we see a certain widow who gave all she had into the temple treasury. Now, the way I understand this, this box was the 'poor box'. The temple would use it for alms. She could have said, 'I am poor therefore, I should keep my money since the temple should be giving this money to me anyhow.' But she wasn't looking at her circumstances, she didn't yield to the pressure of poverty. Instead, she yielded to the presence of the Most High and gave all she had.

What happens when we yield to the pressure? How do we know we are yielding to pressure? There are several ways to tell when we are yielding to the pressure rather than the presence. And I will list a few of them.

1 Focus on the problem
When we yield to the pressure our eyes get on the problem and we can't seem to get over it. Have you ever noticed that if you look at a problem long enough it tends to get bigger? If we focus too much on the problem then we get so we can't see anything else. God didn't design us to worry. When you worry, there are even physical problems that can result. Christ tells us in Matthew 6 to 'take no thought for tomorrow'. I believe we can take this to all of our problems. In 1 Peter 5 we are told to 'cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you.' This is what we are to do. Christ told us to take up His yoke for His yoke is easy and His burden is light. (Matthew 11:30) Why is His yoke easy and His burden light? I would say that it is because He carries the majority of it. We only carry enough to know that we are with Him. We are the little donkey pulling with a bunch of Clydesdales. So we need to focus on Him and let Him focus on the problem. When Christ walked the earth, what was it that He said He did? When a leper would come to Him, did He worry how He was going to heal this leper? No, He said that He could do nothing of Himself, but that which the Father showed Him, that He did in like manner. (John 5:19) So we should do the same. When a problem arises, don't look at the problem, look at the Father. And that which the Father shows you, so do you in like manner. This will always succeed.

2 Get Discouraged
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." (John 14:1) Don't get discouraged. When we yield to the pressure, we will get discouraged. That is Satan whole idea by putting us under pressure. If he can't puff us up with pride, then he will beat us down with discouragement. Don't allow him that satisfaction. If we yield to the pressure we will get so we think that we are not worthy of being in the Lord's presence. Or that we are not worth anything to Him and He can not use us for anything. But when we yield to the presence we know that we "can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". (Philippians 4:13)
There are times when we all feel like God has left us. When we feel like we are walking through a dark valley. The dark enchanted forests we read about in kids books. We traverse the forest starting at every little croak and snap we hear. But what is it that the book of Psalms say? "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."(Psalm 23:4) Notice that the psalmist didn't say 'I will fear no evil for You lift me out of the valley.' No, he said 'for You are with me'. God doesn't promise to lift us out of the valley. We have to go through the valley sometimes in order to grow. God may know what the response of our heart will be, but He wants us and all creation to see what that response will be. I know when you are in the valley all you want is to get out and see daylight again. But if you will remain, the reward at the end is so much sweeter. I know that there was a time when I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. Lord, it seemed like the valley of death, forget the shadows. I cried many times for God to deliver me from the valley. But I knew in my heart that He was with me. And eventually my head caught up with my heart and I decided that it didn't matter if God delivered me from the valley or if He allowed me to walk through it the rest of my life. I finally decided that, like Job, I was going to say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation." (Job 13:15,16a) And as I my spirit and soul learned to rejoice in the Lord and praise Him in the darkness, I saw the light at the end of the valley. And God has brought me out of the valley. Now in my mind, I would like to never go through something like that again. But because I did, I believe that the next time I have to go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for my Lord is with me and His rod and staff will comfort me. I know that I can do it, for I have.

3 Crack
Now I find the Greek language fascinating. At least ancient Greek that is. The reason for this is that so much of our language actually comes from ancient Greek. Take for instance the Greek word for pressure or press down which is piezo. Now anyone who works in electronics knows this word. For it is used to refer to a substance, usually a crystal, that when pressure is applied will vibrate at a certain frequency. So in the case of a crystal, when one applies pressure to it by applying electricity to it, while encased so it can't expand when heated, it will vibrate at the frequency dictated by it's material and size. That is the way it is supposed to work. But sometimes the crystal gets more electricity than it can handle and it will crack instead.
Now we are kind of like that crystal. When trials come our way they put pressure on us. God said in His Word that He would never allow more than we can handle. So we should always be able to handle anything that comes our way. But we can only do it through Christ. When we yield to His presence we will vibrate with the praises of Him, as we were created to do. However, we if we yield to the pressure then we will crack under that pressure.

Now if we yield to the presence rather than the pressure our outlook is completely different. The problem is in no wise too big for God to handle and we realize that we were not designed to handle the problem. So we follow the Word of God and "cast all our cares on Him for He cares for us". (1 Peter 5) I heard Rod Parsley, pastor of World Harvest Church in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, tell one time of a woman in his congregation who came to him and started telling him of all the troubles she was going through. Well she was a bit surprised when Pastor Rod started to dance. She looked at him incredulously and asked, "Didn't you hear what I am going through?" He replied, "Listen to your own words, you are 'going through'. If you are going through, you are not remaining there but God is bringing you out." So rejoice that He is delivering you. He is not making you remain in the trial but bringing you through the trial. Psalm 23 says, "Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death". (emphasis added) We are not remaining any longer than we wish to. I truly believe that when we learn to praise Him through the trial then the trials will get shorter.

I can talk all I want on how the trying of our faith works patient and let patience have her complete work that we will be lacking nothing, but that isn't going to convince anyone to rejoice in the midst of it. I know, for I remember when I was going through the valley. The thing that helped me most was the book of Psalms and songs that spoke of God's faithfulness through trials. So I am going to leave you with a song.