Perseverance Through Trials

This idea of “perseverance” through trials has always sounded sort of scary to me. It congers up images of Job or foreign missionaries or Christians in Buddhist and Muslim countries. Very far from my fairly comfortable life in suburbia where the big concerns are how to get two kids to two different activities on opposite sides of town on Saturday morning and whether or not my son will get placed in an accelerated math class.

But I’ve been reading the first part of James and learning a practical thing or two about perseverance. First of all, James says we will face trials of many kinds. (James 1:2). (Perhaps James had in mind that some of us would face prison and persecution while some of us would just deal with cranky neighbors and broken air conditioners.)

James then goes on to talk about several different sorts of trials and—surprise, surprise—I do deal with these sorts of things in my little life:

• Lack of direction or wisdom (James 1:5-8)
• Feeling poorer than my neighbors (James 1:9-11)
• Temptation (James 1:13-15)
• Things that make me angry (James 1:19-20)

This are the types of things that each day send us spiraling in a different direction than God has in mind for us and these are the things that He wants us to persevere through, promising that perseverance will result in spiritual lives that are mature and complete, not lacking in anything. (James 1:4)

Now that puts a whole new perspective on the little things that go wrong each day in my life. I can actually face them as challenges that will eventually lead to maturity in Christ.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything." James 1:2-4