Trials

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     James 1:2-6 says, “ My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;  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.  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”

     We have a copy of an old Bible, in German, which is a ”Martin Luther edition.   I can’t read it, but can notice some of its differences.  The placement of one book is unusual in that the Epistle of James is the last book in the New Testament.  Luther’s statements about the epistle may reflect some of his personal views, so I have been told by others.  The copy is heavy and a bit tattered here and there as it is almost 150 years olf.  Mom used it to store flowers taken from the tops of various caskets over the years as well as some historical papers from the family, mostly obituaries and locks of hair.

     The epistle has much to say about the Christian life   adn while some may propose that it is in conflict with the writings of Paul, it isn’t.  Basically, it shows works as a result of salvation and not for salvation.  The epistle also deals with Christian living while we are on this earth until we go to glory.  It is also a litmus test of one’s faith.  The above passage is the beginning of the epistle which deals with  temptations adn wisdom.  The King James Version uses the word “divers” in referring to the temptations and is from the word for “manifold” temptations, which is very similar to “many colored” as one looks through a kaleidoscope.  The passage reminds us right from the beginning that we should be considering joy when we are facing these many temptations, which do not come one at a time, but are quite often in groups.  A disruption in your life plan may occur at any given moment, even with a sneeze that throws your back out of joint, a broken shoe lace, a leaking faucet and the list can go on and on.  We soon learn that God is “perfecting” our faith from one event to the other which is where the joy comes in.  You are growing in your faith from one event to the next and so God is working with you.  One of things that will result from these manifold trials is patience.  While the process is not comfortable for most people, it is still very productive.  Growth is taking place in the Christian life.  We can praise God today for His working in our lives even with seemingly little things that may seem to be annoyances at first, but are in reality growing us bit by bit.