As we
continue to study the Word this week, think of it as your daily dose of fuel
that will keep you going throughout the day.
God’s Word will keep you growing in grace. Ask God to give you a hunger for His Word and
an unquenchable desire to spend time with Him.
Be encouraged by God’s Word today and find your satisfaction in Him!
As you read today's passage,
look for these words or phrases: joy,
trials, testing, and endurance.
Passage
for the day: James 1:2-4 (NASB)
2 Consider
it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing
that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And
let endurance have its perfect
result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Questions for
thought: Take a few moments to answer these questions before you go on to
the next section.
According to verse 2, what should our response be
to trials? What is your first response
to the trials you face in your life (no Sunday School answers – be honest!)?
How is it possible to have joy in the midst of pain
or difficulty?
When God tests your faith through trials, what is
the result? How is God testing your
faith right now?
Read Romans 5:2–5, 1 Peter 1:6–7, and James
1:4. If God continues to build endurance
into your life as you submit to God by faith, what will happen?
Meditate
on this:
It is clear from these verses that God uses the
trials in our lives to accomplish His purpose.
And, we are told that our response to these trials should be joy! I don’t know about you, but this did not make
sense when I first read this. In fact, I
wondered how it could be possible, since joy is not my usual first response
when tough times come. What I often fail
to see is that my focus is on the wrong thing!
Joy is not the product of good circumstances but rather, joy is the most
basic and essential expression of faith.
You and I can consider a horrible situation to be a reason to rejoice
because of our faith in an all-powerful God who is in control and who is always
good.
James
is writing this to encourage us!
Remember, the believers who first read this were going through
incredible pain and suffering – and God was not going to be silent. God told them then and tells us now to
embrace our trials – not for what they are, but for what God can accomplish
through them. As in the passages of Romans 5:2–5 and 1 Peter 1:6–7, James here
teaches that trials serve as a test for genuine faith. This is clearly seen in
the story of Abraham and his son Isaac (Genesis 22). God tested the genuineness of Abraham’s faith
by asking him to do the unthinkable – kill his own son. How would you respond to this? Being in that circumstance would be so
difficult! However, Abraham had such a great trust in His God that he obeyed
Him completely, even when he could not understand – and God blessed him for
it. Trials form an essential part of
God’s plan for us and it will prove whether we have a faith that is real or
not. We can have joy because God is
maturing us in our faith and preparing us for the trials that come.
It is
God who makes us strong and prepares us to serve Him. God will always be faithful and promises to
take us through the trials we face (1 Corinthians 10:13)! It is my prayer today that we would all
possess a real, genuine faith that is fully resting on God’s grace.
Praying for that you would Love Christ
PASSIONATELY, Know Christ DEEPLY, and Enjoy Christ FULLY!!!
Pastor Stephen
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