Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance

 Good morning. Today we begin the book of James, the Lord’s brother (while the author of the book does not claim to be Jesus‘ brother, it has been accepted by the church that he was). James, a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad (this reveals that he is writing to Jews, and this explains a lot of the terminology that he uses). Can you imagine your big brother that you’ve known all your life and now you find out He is the Son of God? And now a verse that really does not sound right: consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Are you kidding me – joy? Notice what he did not say – be happy about it. The joy comes from knowing that you were counted worthy to have your faith tested. My Bible says the word translated trials and the one in a later verse translated temptations come from the same Greek root word. Both require faith to stand firm in the midst of. You don’t obtain endurance by one instance of something – it requires repeated instances. Father help us to consider it all joy when we encounter trials, and help us to stand firm in our faith.

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