Daily Reading for Personal Growth, 40 Days with God

Testing Your Faith

1 ^[a]James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve [Hebrew] tribes [scattered abroad among the Gentiles] in the dispersion: Greetings (rejoice)!

² Consider it nothing but joy, my ^[b]brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. ³ Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. ⁴ And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing.

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord, ⁸ being a double-minded man, unstable and restless in all his ways [in everything he thinks, feels, or decides].

⁹ Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position [as a born-again believer, called to the true riches and to be an heir of God]; ¹⁰ and the rich man is to glory in being humbled [by trials revealing human frailty, knowing true riches are found in the grace of God], for like the flower of the grass he will pass away. ¹¹ For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; its flower falls off and ^[c]its beauty fades away; so too will the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, fade away.^(A)

¹² Blessed [happy, spiritually prosperous, favored by God] is the man who is steadfast under trial and perseveres when tempted; for when he has passed the test and been approved, he will receive the [victor’s] crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.