James: Real Life. Real Faith – Week 1

The Purpose of Trials 

A trial without growth is just a process, but a trial with growth has a purpose.

James 1:2-4

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

1. We can experience joy in our trials by knowing that our trials have a .

1 Peter 1:6-7

Romans 5:1-5 

Jesus endured the cross with as his motivation.

Hebrews 12:2 

Matthew 26:37-39

A trial without growth is just a process, but a trial with growth has a purpose.

2. We can also experience joy in our trials by knowing that God provides wisdom for the journey. 

James 1:5-8

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

A trial without growth is just a process, but a trial with growth has a purpose.

This is real ! James applies his teaching to a real-life situation and we can too! 

James 1:9-11

Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.

 A trial without growth is just a process, but a trial with growth has a purpose.