James 1:2-4 — “My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.”
Trials afford us the possibility of spiritual growth to where we are able to cope effectively with any difficulty that comes our way and so we are called to count them “nothing but joy”.
However, trials also expose inner weakness — the very weakness we are being called to out grow. That is to say, trials brings us face to face with the temptation to, in effect, attempt to cut short the trial with our answer to the problem.
So, in a sense, what we are actually having to endure when facing a trial is not the discomfort of it, but the temptation to just do our own thing to try and get rid of it. That’s why the apostle James writes that it is our faith that is being tested — will we continue to look to God for his answer in his time or will we resort to our own immediate answer? When we keep looking to God, it produces endurance in us — we endure the corresponding temptation by practicing walking right past it.
And such endurance not only strengthens our character. The apostle goes on to write, “Happy is the one who endures testing, because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)
