James 1:2-4
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Daily Devotion
by Jesse Sanders
For today’s devotional, I will be highlighting three verses from the Book of James.
James 1:2-4 (NLT)
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Verse 2 of James 1 really peaks my interest. The scripture tells us that adversity and times of trouble are opportunities for us to feel great joy. This is completely opposite to the attitude that our society takes when it comes to troubles and trials. Society’s attitude toward adversity is completely contrary to what God’s word teaches us. Society teaches us to throw a pity party, or encourages us to blame others for our situations and hardships. Many people today find themselves bound and trapped in this societal ideology of victimhood. We have got to fight against that teaching. We are not victims. We are children of God.
The word tells us when our faith is tested, that is a great opportunity for us to grow in endurance. Walking through storms can be difficult. However, if you can keep your faith founded in and grounded upon Jesus, you will find the strength and be given the endurance to stay upright regardless of what the winds of life may blow against you.
Jesus doesn’t purposefully try to make us feel discomfort and despair, but He does try to show us that when those feelings and difficulties rise up, we can use them to help ourselves get stronger in faith. When you walk out of the storm, into the peace of calm seas in your life, you will find that your endurance is greater than it was before the storm came. Sometimes a storm is just a storm. Life happens. Yet we can endure hardships, if we are holding onto God’s hand. If we can understand that storms will come, then we can learn to strengthen ourselves in Him as we go through the storm.