Testing of Your Faith

Intro

If you were here last week, then you will have a good starting point for this sermon as we begin in the book of James. We touched briefly on James’ opening statement to his letter and we will dive in a little bit deeper today. Last week we talked about stepping into this new year without fear, whatever that fear may look like, trusting confidently in the Lord on the road ahead. We talked about continuing in what we are responsible for, not becoming careless or reckless, but also not becoming fearful of what is going on around us because we can trust that the Lord sustains us through every moment and works it all together for our good and His glory. Instead of fear, we can have a spirit that boldly proclaims the gospel, that joins in Christ’s suffering for the sake of the gospel, and most significant to us we can have a spirit that is saved and called according to the purposes of God. So here we are four days into the new year, and I hope each of us has made it this far with our heads held high.

Now as we dive into James, I want to set the tone for our year much like he sets the tone for his letter, and I really want to focus in on our perspective around trial and tribulation, or even simply around our daily struggles that we experience in life. Perspective makes a difference. Have you ever struggled with a significant health issue, or maybe someone you know did, and it just caused you to become depressed? At any point did that sorrow you were feeling make you feel any better? Did that sorrow actually make you any better? It is possible that you became better in spite of your attitude or perspective, but it is not because how you were feeling emotional or spiritually was contributing to how you were feeling mentally or physically. It is a proven fact that a positive outlook or a positive perspective contributes to and results in positive outcomes more often than a negative outlook or perspective does. Here are a few stats from years of surveys and data. We’ll look at a few and then we will work our way into the Word.

Optimistic women had significantly lower risks of dying from cancer (16%), heart disease (38%), stroke (39%), respiratory disease (38%), and infection (52%) compared to pessimists in one Harvard study.

A Yale study found people with a positive attitude toward aging lived 7.6 years longer than those with negative views. I guess that means if you don’t want to get older then you might not have to.

Positive individuals have a 19% lower risk of early death and are less likely to have heart attacks.

Positive people are better equipped to overcome adversity, with one study showing optimists had a nearly 20% lower risk of death over 30 years.

There are countless studies out there around health and well-being and how our attitudes and outlooks play a role, and even though there may be variations, the general answer is the same - people who are more positive and joyful are going to benefit where others will not.

That’s where I want to take us this morning. I am not the shining example of positivity. I call myself a realist, but can dive into pessimism when the mood strikes, or the other side and dive into positivity. I consider all the options and simply make a choice for most likely outcome. Whatever I decide, how I feel before the moment often contributes to how I feel in the moment and after the moment. 2025 was a year of trial after trial and my heart was not always in the right place to be ready to tackle it, and that had an impact both on how I handled those trials and how long it took me to recover from them, if I did recover.

So as James starts out his letter, I want us to all rally around this thought that he starts with in verse 2, and let’s set our perspectives right. Bad things may happen, but the Lord is going to do good things.

This is not indicative of the length of my sermon today, but I’ve got 5 things that we’re going to look at when it comes to trials. The first of which is our attitude before the trial comes. Let’s dive in, starting with verse 2.

Attitude Before Trial

James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

We’re already off to a bad start, right? Imagine walking into a hospital room, someone is laying there ill, and you just come in with that line. “Oh, you’re not feeling well? Consider it joy, my friend! Do you feel that joy? Isn’t it great? Oh what joy we can have!” And they just look back at you like you’re an idiot. Ever do that to someone or have someone do that to you? Or maybe it’s worded a little differently. “Oh, you look sad. Have you tried not being sad?” Or when Charlotte complains she isn’t feeling well and I reply to her, “Have you tried to don’t?” It isn’t always helpful, and it especially doesn’t feel helpful. Yet, this is how James opens his letter. He isn’t necessarily walking into the hospital room, going to the depressed person or being unhelpful to a sick person, but what he is doing is trying to set the tone for how to walk through life in preparation for those moments.

This is what we want to do to setup ourselves for success. He says to consider it all joy WHEN you encounter various trials. When can be happening right now, but it can also be happening later. So there is an attitude that we need to not only having during our trials, which we will get to shortly, but also an attitude we need to maintain before we get to a trial, whether we know that trial is coming or not. We just got through the Christmas season. Now, I know you guys, but I don’t necessarily know your families. You don’t have to raise your hand, but maybe some of you out there just find it draining to be around your family. Maybe it’s even uncomfortable or something that you just have no joy in. But because it’s Christmas and the family gathers, you go. What is your attitude as you work your way there? Are you simply wondering what ridiculous and embarrassing thing Uncle Bill is going to say this year, maybe dreading the lecture you’ll get from your grandmother, or maybe dreading all the time you’re going to wonder where you went wrong raising your kids because of how the grandkids have been raised. Now, is that attitude before hand going to make anything better when you get there? Of course not.

And that’s what I think James is trying to tell us. From a proven, statistical standpoint, a poor outlook on a situation is going to yield a poorer result, but a positive outlook is going to yield a better result. Does that make the trial more fun? No. But don’t you want it to be better in the end? Now, we will unpack the “why” behind our reasoning for joy in a second here, but for verse 2 this is our focus - strive to maintain the positive outlook because it will result in something greater than if you didn’t have it. And we can boil down the why simply like this - consider it all joy, because God’s got it and God will use it.

Now, we’ve consider the attitude we want to maintain prior to trial coming, maintaining that attitude through it of course. Next we want to consider our attitude toward trial. Are we kicking and screaming, or are we hoping and trusting? So let’s look at our attitude toward trial and read verse 3 as we slowly answer the “why” of considering our trial joy.

Attitude Toward Trial

James 1:3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

Well, this is the first part of the “why” behind our having joy when we face trials - because those trials actually produce something. And what they produce is not merely whatever bad things might happen to us, but good things that God works in spite of the bad. And here is verse 3 we can also help to set our perspectives right by recognizing that the trials we face are not about bringing us bad things to deal with, but testing our faith. And as our faith is tested, then it is either broken or is perseveres and produces endurance. Are we more likely to produce endurance with joy before and in all trials, or are we more likely to produce endurance by taking the negative side of things and crying out “whoa is me!”? I think we know the answer.

God may not bring the trial to us, which we will touch on in our final point, but He will surely produce something from it. And we can take joy in knowing that when we face those trials the Lord will produce something good from it and will build up our faith in Him, so that when we face the next trial we are better for it what He has done to face it.

There’s a formerly popular contemporary Christian band called Tenth Avenue North. They actually used to play at America’s Keswick out in Whiting quite a bit. The wrote an album in 2012 called “The Struggle”, and on that album is a song titled “Don’t Stop the Madness”. If you’re in a rough spot in life, I encourage you to seek out and listen to this album. It will speak to your heart. But in the song “Don’t Stop the Madness”, singer and writer Mike Donehey drops the line, “But oh my God, I know there’s more than this. If You promise pain, it can’t be meaningless.”

Would we have more joy if we knew that the reason for our pain is so that God can do something better? Of course we would, but if we don’t start with joy and allow that to shift our perspective here to where we know we can have the joy because of what the Lord will do, then we’re not going to do very well. We start with joy because we know that God is going to work something good, even something better. Does God promise pain? He doesn’t promise to cause pain, but Scripture is clear that we will experience pain, and the Word of God is as a promise of truth to us all. So if we are going to experience pain, then have joy because He’s going to do something with it.

Consider it all joy, before and in every trial, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. If our attitude toward trial is always crying in pain, kicking and screaming, or whatever bad attitude we want to have toward it, then we will not have joy and that testing of our faith will produce nothing. Don’t act like the trial is the end of the world - have joy because God will produce something better from it.

Now, we’ve hit our attitude before the trial and toward the trial, let’s discuss our attitude through the trial. I know we’ve been here for awhile already, so let’s knock out a nice big chunk of our text. Let’s work on 4 through 11, starting with verse 4.

Attitude Thru Trial

James 1:4–11 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Now with this verse we can finish out the “why” of the why we are to have joy and the “how” of the how we can have joy - not only because the testing of our faith produces endurance, but because of what that endurance produces. The endurance of a joyful testing of faith produces a perfect result. The Lord literally perfects us through our trials. If we have that joyful perspective, if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, if we trust that He is working all things together to produce something good in us, then the result of that testing is producing an endurance that brings us closer to God, makes us more like Christ, and causes us by the power of God in us to be made perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If all of this is true, what do you think repeated trials will produce in us if we have joy from the beginning? More joy, more faith, more perfection, more completion, and less lack. The trials we face in life will make us more like Christ. We will more and more start to face trials more like He did and less like we do. We will see the trial behind and charge in with a smile because of what we know God is going to do rather than kicking and screaming afraid of what might happen. Joy before the trial will produce joy in the trial, which will produce a faith that endures through the trial. But we have to be careful in the trial and maintain that perspective, not getting shaken from the path that we are on, but standing firm in the truth of God. Let’s look at these next couple chunks of our passive as we consider our attitude through the trial a bit more. Verse 5 through 8.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea,

driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Now, as James just discussed in verse 4, the result of endurance is that we become complete and perfect, lacking in nothing. But so long as we are here, guess what, we’re not going to be perfect, and therefore there will be times where we are lacking something. And that something that we are going to need to make it through to the other side of our trial is probably going to be some wisdom, and you’re going to need that wisdom in a couple different ways.

First and foremost, there’s wisdom to maintain the perspective. Wisdom to know how to keep your eyes fixed on the joy that comes in the faithful endurance that brings about perfection and completion through the trial. But we also need that wisdom in response to the trial. We need wisdom to navigate that trial. When we are face with a this or that decision moment, we need to be wise to make the right choice in the right direction. So if we’re going to maintain that joy and faith that produces endurance, then we need to rely on the wisdom of the One who will work all things for our good to produce in us a greater faith and a lasting joy. We’re not going to make it through the trials on our own. We need His wisdom to get there. And that brings us into these next three verse, 9 through 11.

But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.

For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

I’ll boil this down simply - don’t think you’re bigger than or above the trials you’re facing. As life goes on, if you make it through trials well, then you’ll probably find that you make it through trials more easily the next time, or at the very least can do better in maintaining the joy in what God will make out of the trial. All of sudden, the humility starts to fade and you might begin to convince yourself that since YOU made it through a trial that YOU can do it again. The one who is humble gets to rejoice in all that happens as a result of their trial, knowing that perseverance leads to a position a complete perfection, lacking nothing, secure in the days ahead with God. But for the one who is not humble, for the one who places his hope in what he has, he stumbles and he fades away. We need to be careful to humble ourselves so that we might guard ourselves from trusting in anything or anyone but God to bring us through. God makes the way through. Much like when we are tempted God provides a way for us to escape temptation, so God also makes a way for us to come to the other side of our trials and see His providence in carrying us through. Be humble, trust in God, trust not in yourself or anyone else, pray for the wisdom that only God can provide, and consider it joy as you walk through life’s trials in pursuit of a holy and glorious God who will make you complete.

Two more quick points.

Past Trial

James 1:12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

This is something I think we can all be fairly familiar with. When you look back at your life and see what you’ve come out of that you are no longer experiencing, does that not sometimes make you feel blessed? Or we could translate the Greek differently - doesn’t that make you feel happy? When that weight is finally off your shoulders, when that situation has resolved, when you have finally made it to the other side of a tunnel that you thought was never going to end, you feel a little different, right? Maybe it’s more of a relief than a happiness, but just look back on your life for a second. How much has God brought you through? How much has your faith strengthened because you endured through those trials? What miracles have worked to bring you to where you are now? Doesn’t that help you in the trial you’re in now?

But it is not just a matter of feeling blessed because of what we’ve looked back on. It is also a matter of being blessed because of what that perseverance has resulted in - we become approved and we receive the crown of life which has been promised to us. Much like pain has been promised as we discussed earlier, so has the crown of life been promised to those who love the Lord, and as we discussed last week, to those who are saved and called according to His purpose.

If we have persevered under trial before, then that should work for our perspective as we stand in the midst of trial now or await what trial may come in the future. We can have joy in our trials now because we have seen the fruit of what that trial produces by the grace of God and for the glory of God. We can consider all trial to be joy because we have seen the consistent faithfulness of God in producing a stronger faith, a greater endurance, and an increasing completion and perfection of us as image bearers being conformed to Christ. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial. But the one who perseveres will begin with the right perspective, that the trial is to be consider joy for the testing of our faith produces endurance, and that endurance results in perfection.

Last point as we look ahead to future trial.

Future Trial

James 1:13–18 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,

with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

Now, we’re going to look at this a little bit differently from what the text says because we’re not talking about temptation, but trial. Though sometimes temptation is our trial. It should be plainly understood that God never brings something into our lives to tempt us. Anything that does tempt us does not tempt us because God is tempting us, but tempts us because the enemy wants to use those things to draw us away from God. And if we give into that temptation, we win. Don’t be deceived. Every good and perfect gift comes from God, but sometimes that enemy can also try to use some of those gifts to draw us away from God, and that may be the trial that we go through.

But drawing us back to trials, we should have a similar mindset. A common question in our world when people face trials is something along the lines of “how could God allow this to happen?” or “why is God doing this to me?”. And there is some truth to consider in those things. God does allow things we don’t understand to happen. God does put us in position to face trial. And we’ve labored long enough on the why - he’s producing something in us through trial. But if our mindset puts us in a position where we convince ourselves that God has a desire for people to suffer or struggle, then we’ve got the wrong mindset. God doesn’t put us through trial to cause pain, but He uses those trials to grow us. He uses those trials to strengthen us. He uses those trials to redeem and perfect us. He uses those trials for our ultimate and true joy, found in Him through the perseverance of our faith. The enemy might be behind those trials, or may even try to hijack the trials to draw us away, but if we are fixed on the truth of who God is, then we have joy in the trial that produces endurance during the testing of our faith. Let no one say, “God wants me to suffer”, but rather say “God is going to do something good. He won’t let my suffering be meaningless.”

Conclusion

This is where we need to begin 2026, right where James begins his letter. We are going to face trials this year. We will face them in our individual lives, and we will face them together. We will face them as a church, as a town, as a state, as a country, as a humanity. Trials will come. But how can we rally around each other and encourage one another to consider those trials to be joy not because we enjoy them, but because of what we have seen God do with our trials before and because we can trust Him in what He will do again? How can we encourage one another to keep the faith when it is tested? How can we point each other to truth of what God will use our trials for? How can we encourage others by pointing out the growth that we are seeing in them as they make it through?

As we go through 2026, let us consider it all joy when we face trials of many kinds. Not because it is somehow going to be fun. Not because we are masochists. Not because we’ve simply accepted that life is hard. Let us consider the trials to be joy because it will build up our faith, produce endurance, bring about completion and perfection, and ultimately continually lead us closer to God as we long for our eternity with Him. The trial is coming. Let’s choose joy.