Testing Your Faith
1 [1]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 [2]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 [3]its beauty fades away; so too will the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, fade away.
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.
James 1:1-12 (AMP)
Footnotes
- James 1:1 James, the leader of the Jerusalem church, was the half brother of Jesus. He became a believer after the resurrection of Jesus and was later martyred for his faith.
- James 1:2 Lit brethren.
- James 1:11 Lit the beauty of its face perishes.
Unapologetically Marcia 