1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. 7For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; 10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. 11For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass; and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.
12Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him.
13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. 15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death. 16Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow. 18Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; 20for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. 21Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; 24for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (WEB)
James starts with a presupposition. We all fall into trials and temptations, and we all have trouble enduring those trials. In the midst of our problems, we are all prone to lose our joy and give up. Endurance is repeated twice in these four verses. Enduring is pushing on through when you’re worn out and ready to quit. It’s when you’re weary, but you don’t give up. You just keep on keeping on. Just because you’re going through a hard time doesn’t mean that you’re automatically going to grow through it. The growth will come in how you handle the trial. The text says “let endurance have its perfect result”. You can have hardship, and instead of growing up, you can just grow bitter. Don’t do that! So, what is this perfect result that James is saying comes through perseverance? It means that you must allow this work, God’s work, to be done in your life.”
6 practical ways we let “endurance have its ‘perfect work’:
1.Allow God to use challenging events as training. Usually, we just try to escape events that are adversarial. Come to the point where you say, “God, I give you these problems and I believe you’re trying to let me learn something. Lord, help me to see what you’re trying to do in my life”.
2.Don’t give way to discouragement or bitterness. Don’t give in! Don’t give up! Discouragement is the button Satan pushes to make us GIVE UP totally, and then we can be convinced of anything.
3.Don’t give way to self-pity. Self-pity is a HUGE TRAP. Don’t fall into it. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Don’t be a “victim”. Self-pity is the ultimate expression of the flesh. Self-pity makes it all about me.
4.Be responsive when you’re confronted with your sin and shortcomings.When we’re in difficulty, God will begin speaking to us through the Holy Spirit about changes that need to be made in our lives. We have to face our anger, our frustration, our bitterness.
5]Stay connected with Jesus throughout the hardship. You must spend time in the Word. You spend time in prayer. Often when people go through hard times, they pull back. They have some difficulty with another church member, so they pull away from the fellowship. Stay connected to the Body of Christ.
6.Continue to trust God even when you don’t see a way out. As I used to tell my kids, “Never give up. Never surrender.” Continue to trust that God loves you and He wants what is best for you. Choose to believe that God is good. The enemy wants to whisper lies into your soul, like, “God doesn’t answer your prayers. The enemy will even say there IS NO God listening to your prayers.” Don’t fall for that. It is a trap. Never give up. Never surrender.
LET PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE FINISH ITS GOOD WORK.