Daily Devotional for Tuesday, February 27

Trials and Temptations—Positive

“Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing,” James 1:3, 4.

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote: “Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” He and James, the writer of James in the Bible, were not saying the same thing, but the idea that trials and tribulations enter every person’s life is an almost universal truth. Generally, no one escapes this life unscathed.

Just before our devotional verse, James teaches that trials develop patience. I am sure we have all heard the old saying about being careful about praying for God to give us patience. Why is that? Because He will not just give it to us, He will teach it to us. “Let patience have her perfect work.” In other words, go with the flow. We need not fight, resist or rebel against the trials in our lives. Remember counting it all joy? James teaches that as well.

Now we come to the “why” part of things. We are given trials, in some cases, so that we may become “perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Does this mean we will become the picture of sinless perfection, or will God give us everything we want? Well, I am afraid not. This means that our trials will cause us to become mature in our Christian lives. To be “perfect and entire” merely means we will become more grown-up Christians, more suited to the work God wants us to do.

What will you do with this truth? Will you spend your life flailing impotently at the trials placed before you? Or, will you search for God’s purpose for it all in your life? The answer makes all the difference in your life and your testimony as a Christian.

JUST A THOUGHT
There are no random happenings in God’s universe. If something happens, it happens for His purpose.

Wally Fry