2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials,(A) 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
-James 1:2-4 (HCSB)
Yesterday, we looked at how our faith is more precious than even pure gold. We looked at how our faith is tried by fire. Today, we are going to look at endurance. If we are going to have a strong faith in God, we must have strong endurance.
A marathon runner must prepare, and be ready to run a marathon race. They have trained their bodies, and they have the endurance to make it to the end. A properly trained marathon runner will not give up and quit before the finish line. Neither should a Christian. To grow our faith strong, we must have endurance. We gain endurance through trials.
James writes in verse 2, "Consider it great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials," We should be joyful when our faith gets tried. Really? Yes. Here is why. Verse 3 says, "knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." The endurance you need to continue living the Christian life is found through the testing of your faith. When you learn to trust and lean on God in today's trial, it will make it easier to trust and lean on God in tomorrow's trial. See where I'm going. That is endurance, and if you want to live the successful Christian life, you must have endurance to continue-in spite of the trials you're going through. Verse 4 says, "But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing." Endurance must complete it's work, so that we may be complete. A metal that is not completely refined will never live up to what it was created for. The same is true for the Christian that has no endurance.
How do you respond when trials come your way? With joy? With worry? Think About It.
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