“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;” (James 1:2). James begins his epistle telling us to count it all joy when we are tempted. Why? Are we supposed to try and take some kind of masochistic pleasure from being subjected to the fiery darts of the adversary? Clearly not. It is never a pleasant or enjoyable experience to resist temptation, but we can count it all joy when we realize what the temptations represent. President Brigham Young once said that he heard from some of the saints regarding temple building, “I do not like to do it, for we never began to build a temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring.” His response was, “I want to hear them ring again.” If we have become truly wicked and hardened to the truth, then we are past feeling and cannot feel temptations. We have become so enmeshed in the lies of Satan that he no longer has to expend any effort to tempt us away from the way of the Lord. It is only when we are striving to live righteously and be obedient and hold fast to our covenants that the devil really tries to tempt us. His entire focus is making us miserable, and the closer we are to genuine peace and happiness, the hotter and fiercer fly his temptations at us. Satan was so concerned by how much happiness could be brought to the world if Joseph Smith prayed out loud that he tried to strangle him so he couldn’t get the words out. If we hear the bells of hell ringing, then we should rejoice. We should recognize that Satan sees us as a threat, that he fears that he has a chance of losing against our will united with the grace of the Lord, and especially that he knows that something truly incredible is headed our way and he can’t stand the thought of us holding out strong to receive it. Facing renewed temptation is not a sign that we are losing but that we are winning. The devil is marshaling all of his forces against us, he is ringing the bells of hell to frighten and confuse us and to trick us into thinking that we are powerless against his might. Let the bells ring. Let Satan cry with a loud voice, and rant upon the earth, with weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, showing the bitterness of hell (Moses 1:19-22). And then let the Lord pour down His love and His grace and His strength to the consuming of our flesh and to the quenching of all the fiery darts of the adversary. James begins his epistle urging us to count it all joy when we fall into diverse temptations. And James ends his epistle, saying, “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (James 5:11). Satan was allowed to tempt Job for a time, but although it is easy to remember all of the suffering he endured, the end of the Lord for Job meant that he was restored tenfold all that he lost, so that after enduring divers temptations we could count him happy and full of all joy at the end. I hope that we can all look to the promised end of the Lord which is very pitiful, and of tender mercy, and count it all joy that the devil is still tempting us because he’s afraid he’s going to lose the war over our souls.
