January 5 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 5: James 1:2–4

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.

Devotional:

God says that when you face trials, you should rejoice! Why? Because you know that the Father who so loved sinners that he did not withhold his only begotten Son from the accursed cross is wisely and lovingly doing what’s best for his redeemed children. That suggests two questions.

First, are you God’s redeemed child? Are you right with God through faith in Christ the Redeemer? If not, then the trials you face won’t work for your blessing. Quite the opposite! You see, these trials are for "the testing of your faith." They’re like a refiner’s fire. Gold ore gets thrown into the refiner’s fire. Everything that is not gold gets burned off. Eventually only pure gold is left. God uses trials exactly like that—to test and refine his own work of grace, "your faith." But if you have no saving faith, then this refining process will show that. It will burn up everything until it destroys you under God’s everlasting curse. If that is your case, then you don’t have a prayer … except the prayer of repentance. Now is the day of salvation. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved…" (Acts 16:31).

Second, if you are trusting in Christ, are you also responding to your trials by faith? Are you reacting to your trials in the light of eternity? Notice that verse 4 contains a command—"let steadfastness have its full effect." That’s a call to walk—step by step, moment after moment, day after day—by faith. When you walk by faith and not by sight, then you see this life as passing—both with its trials and with its enticements. You know God is causing all things to work together to further his sanctifying purpose, you receive his supernatural strengthening, and you devote yourself to cooperate with God’s purpose. You "let steadfastness have its full effect." The goal of the Christian life is not just to survive its trials. It’s to be conformed to the image of Christ. That involves turning from sins in repentance and walking in Christ-like devotion to God.

Pray that God will grant you such God-consciousness and such God-centeredness that "when you meet trials of various kinds," you will "count it all joy" and you will "let steadfastness have its full effect."

Click here for background on the author of Are You For Real?: Meditations in the Epistle of James for Secret or Family Worship.