Reading through James 1 today and I believe James has great practial applications to apply to our life so that we can take steps to becoming spiritually complete and mature. Now theres no such thing as pure perfection except for God, but we need to remember, God is not after perfection, He is pleased when we have progress and make steps to grow in our faith in Him and one way we can make this progress is by the way we view trials.
James 1:2-4 says: “2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
I know for me, growing up I would be confused reading this and not understand. Because normally when we think of trials we try to run away or hide from them. But James has different approach. He’s claiming: count it all joy, as with this trial you have the opportunity to grow in faith and trust in the sovereign God and bring Him glory. You see, if we can make this shift in how we view trails we can face them not as a hurdle but as gateway to build our faith. From the testing of our faith comes a chain reaction. When our faith is tested, that produces steadfastness/perseverance. I think a good way to think of perseverance is determination to do whats right in Gods eyes, and once we do that, then its up to God to show us where He wants us to go. Whenever we see an opportunity to build our faith we should view it as joy as we know that our joy brings God glory.
I pray all of you reading this take this to heart and have the perspective of temptation as it in James 1. Take what satan intends for his good and our bad and turn it into something that is for Gods good and helps us progress towards His love.
- Jack Fisher
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